


Shifted Allegiances

by DarkJediQueen



Series: This Strange Skin [2]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Shifter AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 10:40:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 52,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20890757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Going home is never easy, especially when you never really wanted to go home again in the first place, the last time had been enough. Spencer Reid doesn't want to go home to Las Vegas to see his pack. Last time he had skirted under the radar. This time it would be impossible since he smelled like a Shifter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Year**: Season 4 (2010)  
**Spoilers**: Up through season 4 (Post The Instincts & Memoriam)  
**Notes**: This takes place after Spencer goes home for the case while JJ is pregnant.  
**Beta**: ScarsLikeVelvet

# Part 1

Spencer Reid looked out the window from the passenger side of the car. He smiled as he saw the road start to turn to hard-packed gravel from asphalt. He knew that Aaron had said that he was on a gravel road. Spencer turned to look at his lover, Aaron Hotchner as he drove. All of the windows on the SUV were down so that the fresh air swirled around inside. There were trees everywhere which wasn't that odd, but it was the rear wall of trees that were coming up that was odd to Spencer. Spencer had no clue on the lay of the land for the area they were in. The line didn't feel like a windbreak as much as a way to hide something. The trees were not the traditional pine that created most windbreaks was the other reason that Spencer didn't think it was a windbreak. There was like three layers of trees spaced to where they made the line using their trunks to where one couldn't see through to the other side unless one weaved through them. 

"Doing okay?" Aaron asked as he laid a hand on Spencer's thigh, much higher than polite society would like in public, but then they weren't in public and they were not part of polite society, at least not at the moment. It was just them and the trees.

"Yeah," Spencer said as he leaned forward to look between the trees as soon as possible. 

Aaron drove them through the break in the line of the trees, and Spencer saw that the road went right to the house that Aaron had said was on the land. 

"So who planted the trees?"

"The man who owned it before. His family had lived here for a long time before moving to the city. They used it as a way to have fun though, coming back on the weekends to let the kids roam. I run the length of the trees to check for damage and ones that need cut down and replaced. So far, I have only had to do two. The tree line marks the end of my property and the start of others. I came out last weekend to do the check on the property. I wanted to make sure that there were no surprises. I was glad when this land came up for sale. The man and his family moved out west to let the daughter attend a school that she wanted before she turned eighteen. He hated giving up the land, but the kids wanted to go to college out there, and the parents didn't want to be away from them, especially that much so they settled new land out there."

"It's a good way to make a barrier that stops humans from seeing in but also allows animals to wander back and forth. Though I figure that big game stays away."

"Yeah, most of the larger animals do, and I'm not here enough to give the smaller ones fear of the creatures that hunt them. Most of those have started to come back slowly to the area. I figure that we will scare a few away."

"I'm shocked we came as we are not on stand-down for the next few days."

"We are at the biggest distance that is allowed to be away while we are on call. I mean on a terrible day, traffic can take two hours to get from where some of the team lives in DC to Quantico. We are two hours away. I chose well when I bought this place." Aaron pulled in to a spot that showed the wear of being parked at but had no other marks of a parking spot. Spencer rolled up his window and reached around to the one behind when he saw it going up. Spencer laughed and opened his door instead. Everything they needed was in the back area of the SUV.

Spencer turned around in a circle to take in as much of the land that he could see as possible. There was a fifty feet tree line cleared from the house to allow sightlines but other than that it was an all dense forest. It looked like a perfect place for Shifters to live. The popping of the back hatch had Spencer walking that way without taking his eyes off of the trees. He reached out for his two bags and the cooler that he had carried from Aaron's down into the SUV. Aaron was already walking to the door of the house with a set of keys in his hand. Spencer had never seen the set before, but then he wouldn't have expected to. Aaron was the kind of man that would carry the keys to this place on his person all the time. Hell, he carried as few as possible on his key ring. He hated clutter. 

This area had never been one that Spencer equated with being safe. He was a city and a desert person. He had grown up in huge cities or at least large enough, adding in Pasadena to that. Yet, here because this was Aaron's space, Spencer knew that he was safe. He was always safe with Aaron. 

That had been something that Spencer had known since he had joined the team but had never put a name to what it was. Spencer had never felt safe like that before, but now after meeting others with the knowledge that they were shifters, Spencer knew what that feeling was. Pack. It was because the animal inside of Spencer considered them pack. Even after everything that Spencer had gone through during his younger years at the hands of what should have been his back, he felt safer with Aaron, Morgan, and Prentiss than he ever had with his birth pack. 

"Ready?" Aaron asked as he swung the door open of the house. 

"Yes." Spencer knew that Aaron had plans for them and hunting around the house and learning it was not it. Aaron dropped his bags just inside the door and turned to take the cooler from Spencer. Spencer grabbed Aaron's bags and looked around for the stairs. Aaron went to the kitchen to put up the fresh food that they had brought. Aaron had brought the longer shelf life things the weekend before including some frozen meat. The cooler held vegetables, milk, and eggs. Spencer carried the bags up to the second floor of the house that held two main areas. There was the three bedrooms, one master and two guest rooms with Aaron being the one living there. The other area was a vast open deck of sorts that had a fireplace and was full of hardwood flooring. Two large chests held the blankets and pillows for laying around the fire in skin or fur. 

Spencer dropped the bags down inside the door to the master bedroom before he started to strip naked. He didn't mind shifting in clothes, but he had no clue what Aaron wanted to do so he was going to play it safe and just get naked. He tossed his clothes over the back of a chair and laid his shoes underneath, Then Spencer tossed his socks and his underwear into the hamper that was by the closet door. The room was laid out pretty close to Aaron's place in the city, which didn't shock Spencer at all. It very much seemed like something that Aaron would do. 

The shift was more natural than ever for Spencer only needing a few seconds of thought before he was looking at the world from on four legs instead of two and was looking at things from a height of over two and a half feet instead of six feet. He heard Aaron's footsteps on the stairs and darted out of the master bedroom to greet him. 

"I think this is the first time you have ever shifted before I had a chance to," Aaron said as he reached down to rub at Spencer's head before he ran his hand down Spencer's neck, between his shoulder blades, scratching there just a bit before going all the way down to the tip of his tail. "You are getting bigger. I'm glad you are finally almost to full size for the breed of a wolf that you are. That means we are spending just enough time in your fur. Give me a moment to strip down and I'll join you." 

Spencer trotted after Aaron into the bedroom to watch as he stripped down, throwing his clothes over Spencer's, adding his shoes to the ones under the chair and tossing the underwear, socks, and his undershirt toward the hamper but not quite making it. Spencer walked over to them and started to play. Aaron laughed and grab up the clothing before tossing them where they belonged. Aaron had his issues with keeping things tidy, but as long as clothes got most of the way somewhere, he was fine leaving them if they were going on a run. Spencer though didn't like it. 

There was just a second of reaction time for Spencer as Aaron shifted and lunged at Spencer, taking him down in a roll. Spencer nipped at legs as they took off running for the stairs to head down into the central part of the house. Spencer was on his heels after a few seconds of getting himself right. He tried to catch up with him, but Aaron was out the door before Spencer even got to the bottom of the stairs. 

Stairs were still Spencer's bane when it came to moving around inside of human dwellings in his fur. He was so scared he was going to fall and roll down them that he slowed down a lot. Spencer went out the open front door and looked around for Aaron's shape before he found that Aaron had disappeared. 

"Aaron?" Spencer called out in his mind, but Aaron didn't respond. The link faded in and out for them, the ability to communicate that way. That was why Aaron had brought Spencer out here. When they were in bed and Spencer was half asleep or even post-orgasm, and in his wolf form, Spencer could do it. It was the rest of the time that he couldn't. 

Aaron's scent was on the wind, and Spencer followed it to the back of the house where Aaron was sitting on his hind end and looking at the trees, the perfect picture of patience. Spencer knew that he would never truly be able to sneak up on Aaron, but Aaron did allow him to try. Spencer crouched and crawled over to where Aaron was before bumping into him. He knew that he was upwind from Aaron so the smell alone would actually alert Aaron to him, but still, it was nice to notice when Aaron felt him more than smelled him. Spencer turned the bump into a nuzzle as he walked in front of Aaron rubbing under his chin and all along the front of his body. 

A flick of Aaron's head told Spencer that Aaron wanted him to go into the trees. Spencer dug his paws into the ground and then took off, he was quick and got quicker as he allowed himself to settle into his body. When he hit the tree line, he noticed that there was no sound of paws on the ground behind him. He slowed to a stop, taking a wide arc and looked back at Aaron. Aaron was still just sitting down where he had been at the back of the house. Spencer pawed at the ground to try and get him to follow, but Aaron just shook his head toward the trees again. 

"Go and explore," Aaron said into Spencer's mind. "Get settled into the area without focusing on me." 

Spencer whined a little bit but did as Aaron wanted him to and went into the trees. He tried to not focus on the lack of Aaron's scent in the trees, and it took nearly three hundred feet for the first smell to come to him. Spencer knew most of the smells of the popular animals in the wooded areas around DC. Aaron had been taking him around there for short stints on the random days where the parks and reserves allowed Shifters to run free. It made sure that Shifters didn't get shot by hunters or attacked by random humans. The parks would do member-only events, and those were the runs. There was at least one night a month that allowed it for young Shifters, parents would bring their kids. Spencer had felt weird going to it, but after a while, he had settled into it and got to where he played with the other kids. 

Jack hadn't shifted for his first time yet, and with Haley's blood, they weren't sure that he was ever going to. Jack knew what they were, though, what his lineage was. Spencer had been afraid the first time that Aaron had him shift so Jack could meet his fur form as Jack called it. Jack had no fear of him, even with Spencer towering over him and his size nearly four times that of Jack. The boy had just tangled his hands into Spencer's fur and wrapped his arms around his neck. Then he had demanded a ride. 

The smells of this forest were very different from the ones that Spencer was used to. There was no taint of human smell other than one female that was not familiar at all. Probably someone that checked the area over for Aaron when he was not here as much as he would like to be. Spencer wasn't shocked that someone looked over the place. Spencer followed the trail through the trees, bobbing and weaving around them and stopping at a large pond in the middle of the area. There was a ramp out into it and a boat tied up there. That was where the smell of the female was strongest. It was a Shifter. Now that the odors of animals were gone, Spencer could smell it, smell her. 

Spencer turned around to look above the pond as he heard the sound of a massive flight of birds taking off. There was the sound of wings beating on the air, and the leaves rustling as they cleared the trees. It was in the direction of the house, Spencer knew that. It meant that Aaron had joined him. Spencer dove into the pond and made his way around to the other side opposite where Aaron had entered the forest from. He would make it a little harder for Aaron to find him. 

Before this, before Aaron, the thought of being around one Shifter much less three on a daily basis had Spencer running for the hills. He had chosen his job well. FBI agents, even Shifter ones, were not held to the same pack laws that were around the country. DC was considered a packless area, and there was a large area around it had held the same just to not get close to the packless area. Shifters were not questioned or forced to join a pack, and while some small packs between units or even just between like people were formed, none of them ruled the area. It was as close to safe as Spencer was ever going to get. 

Then Canada had happened, and Spencer had been forced to accept that he was fucked on hiding anymore. Spencer had perfected the art of hiding in plain sight with the whole consuming enough coffee to mask the smell that he was a Shifter. He had shifted with Aaron that night, and the smell of him had taken over. It would take years for him to smell that way again if he wanted to hide, but so far, Aaron, Morgan, and Prentiss had never given him a reason to want to hide what he was. He was accepted for who he was. He was never going to be a Shifter like Morgan, who could break through doors. He wasn't going to be like Aaron, an expert marksman. He was just him, and he was accepted for that. 

Spencer turned toward where he wanted to go as soon as he made it across the pond, shaking out his fur as much as he could get while still making sure he was back into the trees as soon as possible. While Spencer was faster than Aaron most of the time, Aaron knew these trees, and he knew the paths. He was also better at the turns. Spencer sucked at making fast, short, quick turns when he was running at full tilt. 

The sound of a large animal coming at him had Spencer stopping and nearly crashing into a tree. The wind picked up, and Spencer caught the scent of Aaron on the wind. Spencer dug in and took off in the opposite direction. He had hoped that Aaron would not track him that well, but it seemed that he would have to do better to avoid his lover. 

The hunt was on, and Spencer was the prey.


	2. Chapter 2

# Part 2

Aaron knew his land well. He had run it enough alone that he knew every single little place of it. He didn't know Spencer's mind though and where he was going to go. Not for this, not in his fur form. Aaron stayed on his hind end, waiting for enough time to pass. Spencer took a while to get into his fur as it were. He had trouble letting go of the human and allowing the wolf inside to take over enough to blend with his human self. Aaron loved that Spencer was getting faster on that, though. Their runs through the parks across the DC was helping. This weekend though was going to be a real test. Because other than eating, Aaron was going to keep them in fur for as much time as possible. Aaron liked to stay that way as much as possible when he was on the farm. 

The name of the farm had been what the previous owners had called it, and the name had kind of stuck. It had been a farm at one point. The family who bought the land at the beginning had created everything that was on the land. From the layout of the trees that were meant to hide what the Shifters got up to. To the trees inside that were scattered randomly. Aaron loved the land, and he was glad that he had found it. The trees made a break between his property and others but also kind of dissuaded most Humans from venturing close. 

Aaron rose up and started to trot toward the trees as he followed the path that he was going to take to find Spencer. He was barely inside the trees when he found a grouping of birds. They took off, and Aaron made a token chase of them, but he didn't really want to catch a single one of them. Spencer would know where he entered, but that didn't mean anything as Spencer wouldn't know exactly where he went after that. It would be easy for Aaron to change his path, but he wasn't going to. He wanted to see what Spencer thought he was doing. 

The pond was close so Aaron trotted over to take a drink. The water was crisp and clean, at least clean enough for Shifters. He was pretty sure a Human would get sick, but the biology of Shifters was vastly different than that of Humans. Aaron could eat anything and drink anything that a wolf did and not get sick, in either of his forms. Aaron saw the trail that led off, drops of water on grass that were not like the rest of the area. Spencer had been in the pond. Probably to try and throw off Aaron's tracking of him by scent. Aaron wasn't even doing that yet. He found the trail quickly and followed it slowly. When the smell of Spencer became stronger, Aaron followed. He heard a larger animal notice them and freak out, which had Spencer paying closer attention to it than what was going on around them. 

Aaron watched as Spencer took off in the direction that Aaron and the animal were not in. He was quick as lightning when he wanted to be, and this was one of those times it seemed. He shot off like a cannon and Aaron had to give chase. He chased after his lover and really hoped that Spencer was going to just give up and let himself get caught like he had done a few times in the parks. Though the end was more than worth it, Aaron wanted him to get used to what they were doing. He wanted Spencer to follow his natural instincts that were sorely lacking in training. He didn't know how to understand them, and sometimes he went counter to them, and that could mean life or death if they were dealing with a Shifter on a case. Aaron didn't want that to happen at all. 

Keeping track of Spencer was easy as he was running full tilt and not paying too close attention to the noise that he was making, which Aaron would worry about at a later time. This kind of stuff was best learned in stages. Aaron felt his blood pumping through his veins, his animal self turning into the full animal that was a hunt but it wasn't a hunt for life, or for food, it was a hunt to claim. They were on Aaron's land, a safe place to make the final claim on Spencer that his animal would know but Spencer was not ready for that, so Aaron had to calm that part of him down. 

Spencer was like a child in a lot of aspects, and Aaron knew that he had distanced himself from knowing a lot of it because what he didn't know wouldn't make him want to be a Shifter. Aaron had already talked to Haley, Morgan, and Prentiss about coming out one day with Jack and having a pack run, including Haley and Jack on two legs. It would make Spencer feel better, though he would probably still be scared as hell of hurting Jack. It was kind of adorable how scared Spencer was of being around Jack in his shifted form. Aaron had spent as much time in that form as he could when Jack was a baby, including nap times with Jack in the circle that his body made. Jack knew that not all animals were Shifters, and if an unknown approached him, he needed to get to safety. 

It took a few more minutes of chasing Spencer, but Aaron figured out where his lover was going. Aaron still kept up the chase and let Spencer lead him around. Learning the moves that Spencer made, Aaron would be better able to guess his moves in the future. The house was looming in front of Aaron, and he saw that the door was still open. Aaron put that last burst of speed on and ran into the house. He smelled Spencer, that scent that Aaron knew as well as his own by now. 

Spencer wasn't in sight, though. He wasn't hiding behind the couch or anything like that at all. So Aaron moved to the stairs, he debated for a few seconds what he wanted to do. His claws would make noise as he went up the stairs in wolf form, but in Human, he could make no noise at all. Aaron took the first few steps as a wolf, letting the clicking of his claws alert Spencer that he was there, but as he moved up, he changed to human form. Spencer was gloriously naked on a pile of bedding in front of the fireplace that was just starting to glow. The fireplace did not have actual wood, Aaron didn't trust it that much, and the smell always got to him, so it was one of the gas ones that had fake logs that didn't burn. It had been one of the only significant upgrades that he had done to the house after buying it. Other than the kitchen. He had gutted that and put in a whole new one. 

Crooking a finger, Spencer spread his legs and Aaron walked over as quick as he could to drop to his knees and settle between them. The scent of Spencer's arousal was flooding Aaron's nose, and he tried to ignore it, to just look. But the smell was driving him insane and making him want to fuck. Aaron gave in and dropped down to where he was hovering over Spencer, his weight on his knees and elbows.

"You know that you can't distract me with this forever, right?" Aaron asked.

"You brought me out here and kept on touching me during the drive, this is your damned fault. I've had a little bit of arousal rushing through my body since the first time you laid your hand on my thigh." Spencer pushed up and kissed Aaron, wrapping an arm around his head and pulling him back down with him. 

Aaron felt Spencer wrapping his legs around his thighs and gripping him tightly. Kissing someone should not be as arousing as it was when Aaron kissed Spencer. The sex was good, and Aaron loved it, but there was something about just touching and kissing and getting off that way that had Aaron more content to do that after long days at work, there was the added bonus of less clean up as well. That wasn't going to be what this was about though. 

"In me," Spencer said as he pushed at Aaron's chest to get him up. 

Aaron pushed up even more to find the lube. He had left a bottle in the stand that was beside the fire and in his haste to get the drawer open, he jerked it off the track. Thankfully, there was little there except for the lube and a few odds and ends. Aaron shoved those away before he popped the lid on the lube. Aaron got lube on his fingers and drizzled a little on the head of his cock before he tossed the bottle away. Aaron pushed two fingers into Spencer, hearing him gasp and then thrust down onto Aaron's fingers. The rest of the lube he smeared on his cock before grabbing at Spencer's body to roll him. They rarely if ever had sex on their hands and knees. Right now, with his wolf a little too close to the surface, Aaron needed that. He spread Spencer's cheeks and pushed the head of his cock at Spencer's hole, hoping he didn't have to let go of the cheeks to get his cock inside. Spencer's body opened to him like it did every single time, and there was no hesitance for Aaron to get his cock inside of him. 

When he was entirely inside of Spencer, Aaron let go of his cheeks to grab his hips instead, gripping hard enough for him to probably leave bruises that would be gone in hours. Spencer liked seeing the bruises on his hips, especially in the shower after sex. Aaron could never see the marks that Spencer usually left on him without a mirror as it was scratches down his back. Aaron never held himself back, especially when Spencer was fucking him. There was never too much fight over that. They went with what they were feeling on who was doing the fucking and who was doing the receiving. Spencer loved being fucked just about as much as he loved doing the fucking. 

"Harder," Spencer said after Aaron pulled out and pushed back in. 

Aaron curled his hands in just a little bit tighter, feeling his nails digging into the skin a little bit. He pulled Spencer back into him, hard on the next thrust. Aaron let loose then, not controlling how fast or how hard he thrust into Spencer. Aaron wasn't sure who was making what sound, but he was really glad that there were no neighbors that close. 

Close to coming, Aaron let go with one hand, and raked that hand down Spencer's back, making him arch up into that, thrusting back onto Aaron has hard as he could. Spencer lunged forward, pulling off of Aaron's cock. Aaron gripped his hips harder, but Spencer was still moving. He flopped onto his back, dislodging Aaron's hand. Aaron chased him forward and grabbed his legs to spread them before thrusting back inside of him. Aaron wasn't shocked when he was pulled down to where he was near folding Spencer in half so they could kiss. Aaron tried to get the same rhythm, but he couldn't from the angle he was at, so he tried his hardest to get them both off quickly. Aaron shuddered through his orgasm, hands clenching in the bedding underneath them while Spencer's half-turned claws dug into his back, tipping Aaron over into a second smaller orgasm right after the first. 

Spencer pulled on Aaron until he was slumped down on him, his cock slipping out as it softened. The smell of the blood on Aaron's back made him want to get up and clean up but the scent of Spencer, post-sex was always too big of a draw to Aaron, and when he buried his face into Spencer's neck all he could smell was his lover. Aaron tried to make a move to where he wasn't fully on Spencer, but Spencer didn't allow him to do that. Aaron chuckled and let himself settle there. Unless it was hurting Spencer, Aaron was never going to deny him a single thing. 

"We gotta get up at some point Spencer," Aaron said. 

"Yeah in a few hours when my muscles aren't killing me," Spencer answered back. 

"Did I hurt you?" Aaron asked, and he tried to sit up, but Spencer's fingers dug into the cuts that were still healing on Aaron's back. Aaron stayed where he was. 

"No, you didn't hurt me. Running like a madman to get back here to get naked before you got here has my muscles aching a little. I just need to relax a little bit. You can tell me about the plans you have for the party you want to throw out here for our friends."

"The call came down that I can read the whole team in on Shifters. JJ, Garcia, and Dave. Which do not ask me how that man has worked for so long in the BAU, from open to now and not know about them."

"Max Ryan worked all cases that looked like it was going to be Shifters. Even though I was hiding what I was, I claimed it on my HR forms. The lady who walked me through it all said that in cases of profound abuse, they can do that. I had the scent of me to prove that I hadn't shifted in a long time, so she saw no reason that anyone needed to know what I was. That was when Shifters were still very much taboo. I have heard JJ talking about hearing about them but nothing concrete. We have a BAU team that works Shifter cases that are pretty much known to be one from the get-go. What has changed?"

"Since over half of the team are Shifters now, I pushed to get this done. We are still going to focus on the bigger cases and the ones that have the most need, but this allows us to work all cases that had a big need and not have to shuffle a few off. Strauss also made the case that if I were injured like I was a few months ago and needed to stay in wolf form, it would not be good. I agree with that. There is a huge push for Shifters to come out nationwide. The FBI and the Supreme Court have been working on rules and regulations for that. I'll probably be pulled in to deal with that."

"Why you?"

"I am one of the higher rank Shifters in the FBI that is considered packless. I have you guys, and that's it. I don't have a huge pack that follows me. The guys and gals at the Hoover building have all formed a pack of sorts." Aaron trailed his hand down Spencer's side before he moved off to the side. He would have to clean the blankets they were on, but then that was part of the reason why he had a washer and a dryer there. The plumbing had to come to a long distance, but the pressure was good, and the septic tank had been cleaned out recently. He would never live anywhere that there wasn't running water. 

"And they want rules that cover everything, and they want them fair."

"Yes." Aaron sighed and stood up before he held out his hand to Spencer. Spencer gamely took it and let Aaron pull him up. Spencer went with him toward the master bathroom. They were already naked, so it was just a matter of turning on the water. Aaron did that before he stepped out of the large stand-up shower and pulled Spencer to him for a bit of kissing before they both slipped into the shower. 

"I love your hands on me," Spencer said as Aaron grabbed the clean cloth was that was hanging from the rack in the shower. Aaron got it wet and soaped it up before he used it on Spencer's back. He could feel the tension in Spencer's body, and he knew what it was about. 

Aaron made quick work of washing off Spencer's body before he handed the rag to Spencer to use on him. Aaron moved out of the direct spray so that Spencer could get into it. That way Spencer wouldn't have to fight with the water with the blood on his back. Spencer was careful and so damned gentle as he cleaned the wounds that on anyone else would have been gouges deep enough to probably need stitches. The smell of blood was slowly leaving, and just the scent of freshwater and them was left in its place. Hair was next. Usually, it was first, but Aaron liked to get them clean before hands started to wander and with washing hair, hands always wanted to wander. 

"You don't have to tell the team," Aaron said. 

"No, I will. If the rest of you guys are coming out from under the bed, then I will as well. It's not fair, even if all of you would keep your mouths shut about me if I didn't. I'll adjust slowly, but I will not be a freak alone." 

"Never a freak," Aaron said as he wrapped his arms around Spencer from behind. Spencer sighed and relaxed into his arms. Aaron loved this, being able to touch, to be around Spencer like this after holding off for so long because he had been afraid of revealing that part of himself to the younger genius. Aaron knew that it was never good to do that unless the person was willing and open. Spencer's life was science, and there was no way to explain this in science, or at least the science that Aaron knew. 

"You are a freak, but you are my freak," Spencer said, and his tone was fond. 

"Always," Aaron whispered across his skin. There was little for them to do the rest of the day except for laze in bed and maybe fuck again. Aaron was looking forward to it. 


	3. Chapter 3

# Part 3

Spencer felt a hand on his back, and he sighed. That meant that Aaron was waking up, even if Aaron was doing it by rote, he was no longer a dead weight at his side. Spencer buried his face into the pillows on the bed. He wiggled a little, and it made Aaron wrap himself around his body. Even after what seemed like a short time, Spencer knew Aaron well. It was near dawn, and that meant that Aaron was going to be waking up. Spencer had never really had a fully set sleep schedule. He went to bed at a regular time unless nightmares woke him up, but he didn't keep the whole Shifter thing that if the sun was up, it was time to get up. Even as a teenager when he felt the Shifter getting stronger and stronger inside of him, he hadn't done that.

Shifting from one form to another was something that Spencer had only done when he couldn't fight it. Now the wolf inside of him was strong and healthy, and Spencer's world hadn't ended. Still, Spencer was a little hesitant about telling the team. Most Humans had heard rumors of Shifters, especially law enforcement officers. After a rash of killings in the sixties at the hand of a pack that had gone insane, no cop anywhere couldn't say they hadn't heard about someone who was just that much different than them and was likely a Shifter. Most Humans thought it was the loners who were Shifters. The lone wolves of the world when it much more likely they were just plain humans.

"Morning," Aaron said his voice a rumble at Spencer's back.

"Morning." Spencer turned his head to the side to kiss at Aaron's arm as it slipped under his head, between head and pillow. Spencer wasn't that shocked that Aaron wanted a cuddle. Aaron liked to cuddle and had adapted to the fact that Spencer didn't always like to cuddle. It hadn't been as hard as Spencer thought it would be.

"Your wolf is near full size," Aaron said.

"Yes, I saw that when I looked at myself in the pond on the property. I didn't think I would grow that fast."

"You are an adult, and while it's only been a short time that you have shifted since your teenage years, your Shifter side would grow fast, just like animals do." Aaron wrapped an arm around Spencer's stomach and started to tuck him into his body with the intention of starting something that would mean a change in the bedsheets. Aaron was already half-hard against his ass cheeks.

The ring of Aaron's phone had them both groaning. Spencer rolled to his front, escaping Aaron's hold, and he tried to go back to sleep so he could think it was all a dream. Aaron rolled over, never able to ignore the call, but then Spencer never wanted him to.

"Hotchner," Aaron answered even though they both knew who it was.

"Hotch, we have a case that's probably going to get the green light for our team to take in a few hours. I had thought it was a case for Delacroix's team, but I was wrong on that, and it was given to us." JJ's voice was soft, but Spencer's hearing could pick it up, given how close he and Aaron were in bed. Spencer didn't react even though he wanted to run and escape. Even though he had already talked to Hotch about this, he was a little afraid that it had come so soon.

"Yes, I'm not shocked. The team is going to be taking a few of Delacroix's team's cases from now on out."

"Oh, we have the clearance for that finally?"

"Yes. Gather the team at the normal time."

"I called you early because of the drive you have to get back from where you are. I know we were all kind of promised the downtime, but I don't think that this case can wait."

"No, it probably can't."

"You don't even know what it is."

"I'll explain it all when we get into the round table room."

"See you soon."

"Yes." Aaron hung up. He rolled to where he was plastered against Spencer's back. His erection was gone. "We have a case. We need to get packed up and headed out. I'll call the lady who checks on things for me, and she'll come and get the perishables."

"You do seem like you know the case."

"Pack issue, and as much as can and will go into a place where there are issues, we still had to wait to be invited in on this one as it's Shifters who are disappearing and being found brutalized and dead later. Delacroix and I have been watching the news about it. We knew what it was as soon as the first body was found. We both showered last night so we can head straight out. I'll clean up some things if you can make us breakfast, something I can eat while driving."

"The wraps that you like would be good. I can make us a few each, and we won't have to stop and get anything anywhere. I think we still have those glasses of tea we picked up. I can fill those with something and then we shouldn't have to get a drink anywhere either. I'll wash them out."

"Sounds good." Aaron laid his face into the skin between Spencer's shoulder blades. "I don't want to go. We will come back and finish what we had planned here. I promise."

"This case sounds horrific. I figure that Strauss will give us a few days after. Especially if we have to go after and kill the person doing the killing."

Spencer got out of bed, sliding out from under Aaron. He knew that Aaron would never be the first to break their morning cuddle. He hated breaking it at any point in time much less first thing. He walked into the bathroom to shave and get ready for the day. He heard Aaron start to pack up stuff while he worked. Spencer was done in just a few minutes, nothing of his morning ritual was that long. Aaron though grew hair like a beast, so he had to carefully shave to make sure that he got as close as possible. Spencer usually liked watching him shave with the straight razor that he used, but today it would just lead to things that they did not have time for.

Breakfast was easy as the bacon was already cooked, so it just had to be warmed up. The bacon had been bought just for wraps like this. The eggs were the work of minutes on the stove. The tortillas warmed up and then everything was thrown in together before Spencer wrapped them up and laid them in a container to carry outside. He made sure that his clothes were all picked up and packed up.

Spencer looked at Aaron as they drove away from the farmhouse. Aaron was worried about the team's reaction to everything. Hell, Spencer was as well, but this was more. Aaron probably had the plan to do it when they got back from the few days off the team had. Introduce the team to it. Then, work in the office or maybe on a typical case before they were sent on a case to chase the monsters that some Shifters became.

"So what do you know of the case?" Spencer asked.

"Very little other than then there are a few dead already racked up on it." Aaron's hands tightened on the steering wheel for a few seconds before he grabbed the first of the breakfast wraps.

Spencer knew a dodge when he saw it, but he had no clue why Aaron was dodging telling him about the case. Though Aaron was probably put out that his plans hadn't gone according to plan. Aaron was rather upset when things changed on him in his personal life without enough warning. He was pretty fluid when it came to working but home life, he wasn't that great.

Aaron's phone rang halfway through the trip.

"Hotchner," Aaron said as he accepted the call. The phone was on a clip on the dash and turned just enough to where Spencer couldn't see who was calling. It was on speaker as Aaron never drove and tried to talk on the phone while using his hands.

"Hotch, I'll have the jet ready to go after the brief," JJ said.

"Good. And the rest of the team is coming in?" Aaron asked.

"Yes. The team will get here just about the same time as you."

"Great. Anything change?"

"No, it's still really early there. No more bodies have been found as of yet. I've been in contact with their precinct media liaison, and he's keeping me well informed. Right now it's the go-to point between the teams."

"Good."

"I'm shocked that you got Spence out into the woods," JJ said.

Spencer felt his cheeks start to blush. While the team was aware of the relationship, as Rossi had to take over Spencer's evaluations and everything, Spencer still felt weird talking about his relationship.

"I like the woods. It's the beaches I don't like," Spencer said.

JJ laughed. "I'm at the office, and I have the files printed as they stand. Garcia will be hanging back and coming in about halfway through the flight. She's going to try and get some more sleep given the time difference from here to the west coast."

"Good. Delacroix's analyst...Sofia is it?"

"Yes," JJ and Spencer said at the same time.

"Have her on standby as well. We might need her for a few things."

"Okay," JJ said, and she sounded perplexed. "Garcia isn't going to like that."

"It has nothing to do with her technical skills. There is more that you will understand when I get into the office. If you would like, I will call Sofia myself."

"I can do it," Spencer offered. He looked at the time on the dashboard of the SUV. "Yeah, she'll be awake and just getting out of the shower from her morning run."

"That's fine," Aaron said. He glanced at Spencer, just turning his head a little bit. There was a look there, but he didn't ask. "Call if anything happens. We can always meet on the jet and talk."

"Will do. Drive safe." JJ hung up before Aaron could answer anything back.

"You know Sofia's schedule that well?"

"She runs by my place every morning. I've met and talked to her some when I go down and pick up my papers. She was worried for a little while when I wasn't home a lot. Then the rumors and then confirmation of our relationship made her not worry anymore. She was very shocked when she saw me the first time and smelled what I was. She took it well, though and understood. Her pack wasn't the greatest when she was growing up. One of the ones that don't like the females to take part in anything."

"I hate those packs." Aaron reached over and gripped Spencer's knee, giving it a little shake. He grabbed the last of the wraps that were pretty well cold at that point and ate it anyway.

Spencer was glad of that. He had worried when Aaron hadn't eaten his fill at the start of the trip. Whatever was going on in Aaron's head was calm at this point. Spencer could also understand why he wanted Sofia to help Garcia. Garcia was going to need the help as Shifters did not profile like regular people.

The rest of the drive was silent, Aaron taking Spencer's hand and joining them to rest on the middle console area.

When they entered the bullpen, Spencer saw that Morgan and Prentiss were nervous. They looked at Spencer with a little bit of apprehension.

"Hotch, Rossi is already in the round table room," JJ said as she crossed the upper area from Aaron's office to the room.

Aaron started right for the round table room, and Spencer stopped at his desk long enough to drop his messenger bag there and grab his notepad and his favorite pen. He was the last into the room, and when he sat down, he felt all eyes on him, even Rossi and JJ's. 

"Okay, what's the elephant in the room?" Sofia asked as she looked around. 

"I'll get to that in a few minutes." Aaron hadn't taken a seat yet. 

"The FBI has been the forefront of a secret arm of the justice system for this country since it was formed." Aaron looked at Sofia. "It's going to be your job to teach Garcia about all of this. I think she would hear it better from you instead of me."

"You got it, Hotch."

"There is a branch of humans that have evolved on a much different path than regular humans," Aaron went on to explain. He turned to Prentiss. "Your form is much better for the space we are in, but if you would rather not, I can shift."

"No, it's fine. Morgan and I figured it would be me." Prentiss dropped from sight for a few seconds before she jumped up onto the table in bobcat form. 

There were no screams from JJ or from Rossi. Which was kind of a feat, Spencer thought. 

"Prentiss is a bobcat, Morgan is a Grizzly bear while Reid and I are wolves." 

"That explains a lot of issues I had with Max over the years," Rossi said.

"Yes, most of the cases that he didn't ask for help on, even though he probably needed it, was because he was keeping this a secret. Delacroix's team had been the BAU Shifter unit for a while however since it's been found out that over half of this team are Shifters, I was allowed to bring you all up to speed on the shadowy parts."

"But you have all been on this team for years," Rossi said. 

"I was hiding," Spencer said. He didn't look up at anyone and instead just kept his eyes down on the paper in front of him. "I had a lot of issues growing up with the Shifters in my pack. I didn't like a lot of how I was treated. There are ways to hide what you are, and those can be got into in much greater detail either on the flight or after the case." 

"Sure," Rossi said. 

Spencer knew the tone meant that he wasn't going to let it go, but Spencer didn't really care about that. 

"I think that Reid, the issues are going to have to be talked about as far as why you didn't like your pack in detail before this case is over," Morgan said. 

"Why?" Spencer asked as he looked up. 

"How many packs are in the area of Las Vegas?" Aaron asked. 

"The last that I knew and cared to know it was three large packs that split up the city as well as the suburbs and then I think four medium packs. The smaller ones are unknown."

"What's the difference?"

"Large packs are more than fifty, medium ten to forty-nine while small are under ten. This pack that has formed has four, so we are considered small. That is why DC and most of the areas around it are considered packless. Due to the nature of the people that move around inside of DC and especially the law enforcement agents that call this home, make it hard to have any kind of pack form. There is no official pack, but small packs have formed and control no area at all. Even the small packs will get together to do runs and things like that usually with the family of the pack that is humans."

"There is a lot of history, and you can pick Reid's brain on that later."

"Why did you want to know about Vegas?" Spencer asked.

"Because that is where we are going. Someone is hunting, kidnapping, torturing, and dumping Shifters from all three packs that run the greater part of Vegas."

Spencer felt his gut clench, and he felt his flight or fight response kick up. He was safe, though, Aaron, Morgan, and Prentiss would make sure that he was safe. 

"What are the names of the packs?" Spencer asked. He grabbed the files that were in the middle of the table. He flipped through the photos inside to look at the victims, he knew only one of them. 

"There is the O'Halloran pack, the Lighthouse pack, and the-"

"Shea pack," Spencer said. He knew the victim was from it. He looked back at the file and read between the lines. "This is not the correct file."

"No, I was going to have us work off of it and have Sofia print us the more detailed file for the flight to Vegas. Which pack was yours?"

"Shea but back then it was Reid pack. My uncle lost control of the pack and was killed in the fight to be a leader when I was two. When my father left mother and me, I was shunned from the pack, and the Lighthouses and O'Hallorans did nothing even though they claimed that they were welcoming and not like the Sheas. Given the brutality of the attacks, I would say that it's not one of the medium packs working as a whole. They would have had something else happen with another member. So this has to be a small pack working as a whole. I could even be s few as three members."

"I agree," Sofia said. 

"We are wheels up in twenty minutes," Aaron said after he glanced at his watch. He looked at Morgan and Prentiss before looking at Spencer out of the corner of his eye. "I do not mean this as a slight to either of you, Dave, JJ, but I will not allow Spencer to be alone at any point in the case without another Shifter close by. I do not know the reaction that the Sheas will have to him."

"That's understandable," Rossi said. 

JJ just nodded her agreement to it and gave Spencer a smile. 

Spencer was going home, and this time, he was going to smell like he was a Shifter. This time anyone that he crossed paths with would know. There was also the fact that he would have to meet with someone from each of the packs to talk about land disputes and various things for the geographic profile. Spencer wasn't sure that he was ready for this, but he would do his damned best. 


	4. Chapter 4

# Part 4

Aaron wasn't shocked when Spencer was the first on the jet. The team had ridden in two SUVs to the landing strip, so JJ and Dave were treated to the sight of Spencer's leg bouncing up and down near-constant from the second he got into the SUV to the moment he exited it. He near sprinted for the jet, and the rest of the team just hung back. Aaron grabbed their bags, it was a small fight that they had got into when finally settled into a relationship, but Aaron had been the one to come out on top. He liked doing little things. He knew that Spencer could do it himself. He knew that Spencer was more than capable, but Aaron wanted to do it, and Spencer indulged him. Though that also could have been the orgasm that Spencer was coming down from when he agreed. Aaron had no issue using his wiles, as Spencer called him, to get Spencer to agree to small and stupid shit. 

Spencer let Aaron make his coffee most mornings as well, just like Spencer more often than not was the one to cook breakfast. It was a small thing that they liked to do for each other, things they had settled into that were nice that showed each other they cared. It showed the love they had for each other in small ways that they both liked. 

"So I don't remember the kid being like this last case we had in Vegas," Dave said as he fell into step beside Aaron as Aaron made his way to the jet. 

"That's because he wasn't anywhere near this at all. He smelled Human, a little like he binge drank coffee but still human. Now he doesn't, and he'll explain that more once we are on the jet. His experiences with the three packs will help us all get the lay of the land. None of those packs have reached out to him over the years, so they have ignored an issue that they caused."

"Why is it so bad that he was shunned?" JJ asked. 

Aaron stopped on the base of the stairs up into the jet and looked at the two humans. "Because the pack is family. When there are issues, packs bands together to take care of the weak and the young. Spencer was ten when his father left. He had a paranoid schizophrenic for a mother. There should have been a pack stepping in. The Reid's were not pushed from the Shea pack when the uncle died, that came after, and for all intents and purposes, William Reid is still in that pack. That means the other packs washed their hands of a Shifter child with a possible violent parent. Do you know that Reid could have started to shift as early as six? Think about that. With a violent parent who didn't recognize her own son as a human and a wolf cub in the same house. There are reasons that packs take children in with no issue as long as that child has no claim from another pack." 

"Shit," Dave said, and his eyes showed that he got it. "It was like leaving a loaded gun in the hand of a schizophrenic."

"Yes." Aaron waved the team up, and then he got on the jet. Spencer was on the couch which was an odd place for him, but when any one of the team got close to him, he glared. Aaron stowed their things and then dropped down onto the seat next to Spencer. The other four settled in at the table across from them. 

Takeoff was quick and smooth. 

"I should tell you guys part of my story," Spencer said as he leaned forward. 

"You don't have to," JJ said.

"It plays into pack dynamics, and while Reid hasn't been in the pack for a very long time, it's telling of what happened before and what could be happening now. Packs don't just suddenly shift, they had issues for a long time that cause that shift. There could be a lot of resentment on the part of someone who used to be in the pack and isn't anymore." Prentiss patted JJ on the shoulder when it seemed like she was about to say something else after Prentiss had stopped speaking. 

Aaron took in the formation that the team had taken. Morgan and Prentiss were window side of the jet while JJ and Dave were in the aisle seats. Between the Shifters. It wasn't that shocking to Aaron. Hell, he had seen the three of them do it before they knew about Spencer, usually each of them taking a human as it were and protecting them. Aaron had almost always taken Spencer which Morgan and Prentiss never questioned. 

"My uncle was the pack leader. I remember him a little bit. My memories are vague before two and little more concrete after I turned two. For me, as a child, the pack dynamic didn't change at all. I still went on the runs with adults and other kids, some who shifted early and others who were still mostly human. I played with friends, and I learned to watch. I think it was what freaked out some of the parents. I didn't act like a normal Shifter kid. I would rather read. Then mom started to have issues. Things became strained and because father didn't want to take mom out and so I started to be isolated from the pack at age seven. I missed a lot of them, but things were okay. Then father left, and I tried to go to one of the runs. One of the other older kids shoved me and kicked me to get me to run away. I didn't understand at first. Then the formal announcement came, and Jake Shea came to the house to tell mom and me that we were no longer allowed to have anything to do with the pack. A few pack members disregarded that and tried to help us; they were cast out as well. After that, no one else came to help except for those that had already done so. I tried to seek shelter for us in the other two packs but was rebuffed." 

Aaron felt Spencer's walls going up and he wasn't going to push to have Spencer keep them down. This was even more than Aaron had ever got from him. 

"We are taught from when we can first understand words that pack is family," Morgan said. He sighed and looked at Prentiss before looking at Dave and JJ for a few seconds each. "Pack is the family that will outlast your immediate family. The pack is forever. So to shun a child, no matter the parent is sacrilege. To leave a child like that is horrific. He should have been taken from his mother and raised with another family while she was getting the help she needed, and then when she was settled and herself, Reid could have been given back. The pack is a family that has your back no matter what. My pack in Chicago was why a man who had been molesting boys had been caught after the second. While I love my pack back home, I joined the BAU to help educate law enforcement on the patterns and behaviors of serial offenders and helping them stop it before it hurts too many. That meant BAU, and that meant here. I still go on runs with them when I go home. They don't hate me for leaving, and many are just happy that I'm trying to help everyone that I can. I'm welcomed home much like Shifters in the military are when they are home. Duty doesn't mean your packs leaves you, or you leave your pack."

"I never had a pack to settle in with Mom's job and running around the world. We had the staff that traveled with us, and it was as close to a pack as I have had. This is the first pack that I have had that I have stuck with for a long time," Prentiss said. 

"I went to Caltech, and I stayed away from the packs that had sort of formed up there. Most colleges have pack leaders that help control the wild, hormonal teenagers. They tried to force me to join up with them, but I kept pushing away. I acted out some until I was left alone. That was the only thing that got through them. They had to make a choice on keeping on pushing and maybe getting humans involved or leaving me alone. So I was left alone to drink so much caffeine that while my body adjusted, I was wired for days sometimes. Then the final shift happened. Kids who don't Shift early shift at the end of puberty, or thereabouts for them. After that final, forced shift for me, I never did again. Between that and the coffee I was drinking by the time that I turned eighteen, I was fully human smelling. I was kind of forgotten about, and no one cared when I went home for visits with mom. As long as I didn't go to the areas that were claimed by the Shea pack, everything was fine. There are areas of Vegas that no pack claims as their own, I did everything that I could there and only ventured into other packs lands if there was no other way to get what I needed."

"That sounds like a shitty time," Dave said. He looked at Spencer though with a lot of pride. 

Aaron knew where he was coming from. The team knew enough of his life beforehand to know that he had a rough time of it. Aaron could also see the look on his face that said that they were lucky that Spencer had never turned into one of the UnSubs that the BAU chased. 

"It was, but then I went to the FBI Academy, and I did just enough to eke by on the evaluation when it came to the physical stuff. Even though I hadn't Shifted, my body still was a lot stronger and faster than normal humans. I did not want to tip off anyone as to what I was. HR helped and understood, and so no one knew what I was until Canada. Aaron got his arm stuck in a trap, and I was with Morgan and Prentiss as they found him. As much as coffee hides what I am, it blocks smell as well, which is not the best. There is a smell that all Shifters have, no matter their breed and just as much as I don't smell like it, I couldn't smell it either. I didn't know that Morgan, Prentiss, and Aaron were shifters. I fled in fear because I had started to fear Shifters from the moment that I had been shunned by my back. From the moment that I had been attacked by someone I called my best friend when I had been trying to reconnect with them. They were enemies, and now I had three of them on the team with me."

"What happened to change that?" JJ asked.

"I had always felt safe around Aaron. Always. To the point where I was going to end up doing something stupid and blurt out that I loved him. He showed up at my place after Canada, and he confronted me. He went about it the wrong way. Anger, strong emotions are usually what make a Shifter lose control and shift, but the things are that I had been feeling scared for so long that it didn't do anything except really piss me off. There was a part of me that liked it though, like the attention, liked that he cared enough to try and fix me. Other things happened, and then in the middle of the night, I shifted. He woke up to a wolf in his bed."

"Feeling safe, loved, cared for, that's what made you lose control of yourself," Prentiss said. 

"Yes," Spencer said with hesitation. "I had always felt safe around him. He made me want to be a Shifter again before I knew what he was. Aaron's reservations were not starting a relationship with a normal human. Most of them don't do well in this world, but you two had skirted it enough that Aaron doesn't think you'll freak out."

"How did you figure out what he was?" JJ asked, looking at Aaron.

"I was hunting for Lucas Turner as a wolf when I got caught in the trap, but I needed something with his scent. Spencer was still in the barn when I went to get his scent. He tossed me down something that had his smell on it. He knew what I was on sight. That meant he knew about the world. It wasn't until he ran when he saw me turn from wolf to Human that we figured out that he was one of us." Aaron laid a hand on Spencer's thigh as he had started to bounce his leg up and down again. Spencer stilled the leg, but Aaron could still feel how wound up he was. He wasn't going to be able to settle until Spencer saw the reaction that the packs were going to have to him. Aaron would rather pull the team as a whole than to have Spencer sidelined at all. He refused to have Spencer feel like shit because a pack was upset that he was on the team. He would make sure that Strauss backed him as well. 

"So how are we going to go about this case?"

"Reid is going to be with a Shifter at all times. On any other case, I would trust you two with his life, but pack dynamics are going to be very frayed here given what is going on. The Shea pack was the first to be hit. The pack leader blamed the other two until each of them had a body show up as well. Now the focus is a small or medium pack. According to the packet sent to us by LVPD, five medium packs skirt the areas by the three big packs and uncounted smaller packs. A lot of packs like that are transient based on various things. The desert also draws in a lot of small packs, places to hide and be themselves. Most larger packs keep an eye on the packs that are there to make a fuss. We have had a few cases of packs that tried to kill humans to make us the dominant species on Earth. That obviously did not go well at all."

"These packs are going to have a lot of tension," Morgan said. He leaned forward, his eyes on JJ. "They are going to assume you are the weakest point in our team, outside of the Shea pack and thinking that it's going to be Reid. You can't let them push you around."

"I won't." 

"Okay, let's go over what we know and what we need to know." 

The rest of the flight was spent trying to give Dave and JJ the knowledge needed, so they didn't upset a pack as well as make sure that they had what they needed to not piss off the packs more. Spencer's knowledge was outdated, but an excellent foundation to build on using their own profiling skills. 

Aaron was the first in the doors at the station house that was being used as the base for the case. It was in the middle of a free area where no pack at all ruled. The smell of a lot of Shifters filled Aaron's nose as he had gotten out of the SUV and when he entered the main area after behind directed back to the bullpen, Aaron knew why.

"Look, the FBI is sending a team. They have four Shifters on it. They will help," a man was saying. He was dressed in a suit, so Aaron assumed he was the Captain. 

Morgan was beside Aaron while JJ and Dave were directly behind with Prentiss and Spencer bringing up the rear. 

"Look, we know who is doing this!" another man yelled, and his hands nearly turned into claws. Aaron saw the fur start to peek out on the back of his hands. Aaron recognized the fur as fox fur which Aaron was pretty sure meant that this was someone from Shea clan. "Look for the runt that was cast out of the clan when he chose his mother over his clan." 

Aaron bristled at that because there were only a few reasons why a child would pick a parent over the pack and none of them were good. Usually, it meant that the parent was being abused in the pack. The fact that this guy called it a clan and not a pack was a little telling to Aaron. It was a new term that some packs used when their Shifters were not animals were typically pack. Mainly the ones that had more than one breed of Shifter. The Shea pack, even in accordance with the paperwork. That meant that Shea was trying to seem better than they were. 

"Now according got the paperwork that you submitted about the past pack change, the old leader's brother, the father of the kid you are talking about, stayed in the pack and divorced his wife and left a child with a violent, unstable mother."

"He chose her. Austin Reid's nephew chose his mother over the pack. I was there when it happened!" 

Aaron knew then that he was looking at Jake Shea. The man was abhorrent, even by feel to Aaron. 

"A child chose her? The pack didn't force her to stay away and then attacked the kid? That's what the report I have on it says."

"It's lying. Find Austin Reid's runt nephew, and you'll find he's behind the killings."

"Didn't keep track of the little Reid did you?" Spencer asked as he pushed up to the front of the group. All of the Shifters in the room turned, angry that there were outsiders there. Two stepped up to flank Shea. 

Aaron kept Morgan back to where Reid was slightly in front of them. 

"Who the hell are you?"

"We are the BAU team that was sent here," Aaron said as he flashed his credentials. "Answer the question, Mister Shea."

"No, I didn't need to keep track of him. Why would I?"

"Then you would have known that he went to college, got himself about seven degrees total, three of which are Ph.D.s, by the way," Morgan said with a smirk on his face. "Then he went on to join the FBI and has been hunting serial killers for the last six years. And that he's standing in front of you." 

Shea looked at Spencer, and the look of utter disgust on his face was appalling to Aaron.

"Then you can clear this up for me, Doctor Reid," the Captain said. He turned to his side and took a few steps away from Shea toward the agents. Aaron realized the slight that it was giving Shea and Aaron could tell by the look on the Captain's face that he knew exactly what he was doing. "What happened?"

"My father kept my mom and me away from the pack after she started to get sicker. Then after he left, I tried to go back to the pack. I was shoved, kicked, and told that I would be killed if I tried to come back." 


	5. Chapter 5

# Part 5

Spencer knew that he was letting anger rule him at the moment, but unlike the other Shifters in the room, Spencer didn't have a chance of shifting while he was pissed off. 

"I would rather never have to set a single foot on any of the pack lands in the area, Jake. I would rather never see you or anyone in your pack again, but here I am because I am a good agent. I don't get to pick who I protect, but I was asked to come here and find the person who is killing pack members. I do my job, and I do it to the best of my ability every single time. I don't let personal issues cloud the work that I do."

"Doctor Reid," someone else said. 

Spencer turned around to look at them, and he knew that he knew that face. He was going through his memories of school before he saw the name on the shirt and realized that it was one of the officers he had worked with on the last case he and the team had in Vegas. "Officer Clemmons."

"Oh, you remember me."

"It wasn't that long ago, and with my memory, I remember a lot more than most people." Spencer looked at Shea for a second to make sure that he wasn't moving toward him. Then he looked back at Clemmons and saw that the man had a cup in his hand. It looked like it had cream in it. 

"Here is a cup of coffee. I remember how you liked it. You look better, happier than the last time you were here."

"You were here and didn't tell the pack?" Shea demanded.

"I actually don't have to tell anyone where I go. I'm a Federal Agent who works, and no FBI agent actually has to declare where they go for work. You should know this." Spencer reached out and took the cup of coffee from Clemmons. Spencer gave him a smile, and the man nodded before going back to his desk. Spencer could see the file there and knew that Clemmons was one of the locals working on the case. 

Shea looked really ruffled. He looked at the members of the pack before looking back at Spencer. "I demand you prove where you were."

"Well, he really only needs to prove where he was for one of them," Morgan said. He looked at Aaron before he looked back at Shea. "But he was on cases for each of the cases. This whole team was. You can take that up with our Section Chief if you would like. I can get her number for you."

"That won't be needed," the Captain said as he stepped between Shea and Spencer, he looked pissed off but not at Spencer. He actually looked a little fond of Spencer. He held out his hand for a handshake. Spencer didn't like to do that, but still, he shook the man's hands, and he realized that he was a Shifter. "I'm a pack of one, Doctor Reid. I've never had one and have clawed my way up the hierarchy of the Vegas PD. This whole station knows about Shifters and we kind of cover the entire city on Shifter related crimes as well as this small area on regular crimes. I refuse to damage the relationship that I have with the FBI on a whim of a pack leader who refuses to admit to doing anything wrong."

"I will not allow him on any of my lands and will have a kill on sight order up for him" Shea was just digging the hole deeper and deeper. 

"Then no agent of mine will set foot on your land," Aaron said. He sounded very much like he was glaring at Shea, but Spencer didn't turn around to look. "We will work the case based on the case as it stands for Lighthouse and O'Halloran packs. It will take us longer. So far, there are six dead. That means that if the person or persons doing this stick to the rotation they have, it's your pack that's up again." 

Shea looked a little green around the gills at that, and the rest of his pack that was with him looked like they were pissed at what Shea was doing. Spencer wondered how many were going to challenge him when the time was done. Leaders didn't last long when they started to make decisions that went against what was best for the pack as a whole. Spencer also wondered what kind of stink was going to happen when the pack figured out what had happened to him. He didn't care too much and hoped that the fallout happened after he was gone from the state. He wanted nothing to do with the pack at all. Even the friends he used to have on it. No one that he knew of questioned anything that had happened that year. 

"We accept the BAU's help," O'Halloran said as he stepped up. He was older than Spencer remembered, but his eyes were still kind. It made Spencer want to turn around and dismiss the man. Spencer had gone to him personally, but the man had rejected him. Lighthouse hadn't even given him the time of day. Spencer hated these men. He hated who they were and what they stood for. Forgiveness wasn't something that he was going to give them. It wasn't like they were going to ask for either. 

"Yes," Lighthouse said as he nodded at O'Halloran. "The BAU will have access to anyone that they want and everything that they need to figure out who is doing this."

"The first thing that we need is a listing of all members of your packs that have been removed or left of their own free will over the past forty years."

"Especially anyone who was pushed out," Spencer said. He was looking at Shea has he said it.

"What about the whelps mother?" Shea demanded. 

The Captain looked at Shea like he wanted to slap him in the face. Spencer kind of agreed with that. 

"My mother is locked away where she can do no harm to anyone but herself. If you go looking for her, you will be killed," Spencer said. 

"Did you just threaten me?" Shea asked.

"No, he didn't," Aaron said. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, it seemed, as Aaron stepped up to be level with Spencer. "The facility that she is in has a strict policy that all Shifters who are on the grounds have to be escorted, and you would never be allowed into the facility, and they do have a shoot on sight order for all Shifters that do not go through the normal procedures to get in there. I was greeted in the same fashion the last time that I was here. Agent Reid is the only Shifter that is allowed through the doors without an escort. I know this because I joined him there in our last case in the area at one point. I was escorted through while he had none."

"They got rid of my escort years ago. It was a waste as I have never done anything. Captain, where is the room where we can set up? I need to get started if we are only working with the raw data from the first and fourth victims." 

"This way Doctor Reid," the Captain raised his hand and pointed Spencer in a direction that Spencer could see held several rooms. There was one already set up with a whiteboard. There was also a lot of office supplies in there that Spencer would use instead of his own. He would make sure that JJ didn't get them from the SUV. 

Spencer entered the room and stopped in his perusal of the area when he heard the door shut. He turned around to see that the Captain was still in the room. "Yes?"

"I wasn't aware of the issues surrounding what happened back then. I was a lot lower on the food chain, but I heard of the issues over the pack changing hands. There are laws on the books for Vegas, the Shifter laws that would allow you, even now to take them to court."

"It's not worth it. My mother and I made it out, and I doubt that they did it to anyone else. I was the only Reid in the pack. If I had been older or stronger, I could have seen it. I could see where he feared me and threw me out because of that. No one would ever see me leading a pack." 

"Still, they did leave you in the hands of a person who was unable to care for you. Your father could also have a lot happen to him. If you wanted to go that route."

"I want to think about him even less. He may think that what he did was for the best, but it wasn't."

"Well, if you change your mind, my men would do it. There are no Shifters on my unit that have packs. Lone wolves as they said."

"Actual wolves?"

"One of them. Another is a leopard. We are a very varied unit. I know that the Sheas are all foxes, they are still pure in their eyes."

"Yeah, that's the other reason I was pushed out. I'm a wolf. My mother's Shifter genes were stronger than my father's, so she won out on that."

"A wolf among the foxes. I can see that also being an issue."

The door opened, and Prentiss slipped into the room with a box of case files. Spencer pointed at where he wanted it, and she set it down before grabbing a few and settling in to read them, one eye on the files and another on the Captain.

"Clemmons is one of the first Detectives on the scenes once it was figured out the victim was a Shifter. He'll be working very closely with your team." Prentiss didn't look up as she talked.

"Good. I like him. He's a good officer." Spencer was glad that someone friendly would be helping them.

"That's why after he took and passed his exam a month ago I snatched him up. I get picks of people, especially when they are not Shifters from a Shifter family. He was shoved off into foster care by his father after he was found out that he was never going to shift. I was glad to have him."

"From the Shea pack?" Prentiss asked.

"Yes. There is a lot wrong with that pack, but as of right now not a single one of them has done enough for the board pack to come in and fix shit."

"Would me coming forward help?" Spencer asked.

"No. It was too long ago, and I have found no evidence of other instances. With you being a Reid, it could be easy to pass it off like that. I will start to look into situations like yours though and see if there is evidence of abuse. If I can show it going back as far as Shea taking over yes, it might be a good thing for you to come forward."

"Then, I will. If I can make sure that Shea is ousted, I will do it. I hate being there and being on display but if it stops it happening again, if it has, then I gladly will." Spencer looked at the board and then back at the Captain. "I need to get started, and I do better with no one distracting me."

"Then I'll leave you to it, Doctor Reid." The Captain tipped his head in a nod and then left the room. 

Spencer looked at Prentiss for a few seconds before he turned back to the board. There was a lot to be done before Spencer could even think about going and visiting any of the pack lands. He had a lot of reading, as well. 

"Hey, Spence," JJ said a long time later. 

Spencer pulled himself from the file he was reading and looked to see that it had been two hours. JJ had a file in her hands. It was a damned thick file, Spencer wondered what it was. He looked to see that Morgan was in the room instead of Prentiss this time. He had not noticed the changeover. "Yes, JJ?"

"I have a file here on the issues that involve any pack members from all packs that are recognized by the local cops. The Captain said that he compiled this himself for you. Clemmons called it light reading. The Captain looked at him, shocked until he saw you reading through the files in here. He was a little shocked. Though that also made Shea look in here and he was pissed. His second still hasn't arrived as he is dealing with the family of the deceased and trying to get them here. O'Halloran and Lighthouse families are on their way. Hotch said that you can do whatever you want as far as these things go."

"I'm going to be here at least another two hours, and then it will be meal break, so after that, I'll work on something else as I think I need to not be caged up here." Spencer held out his hand for the file and set it aside for when he was done with what they had as far as a geographic profile.

"Would Hotch have done that?" JJ asked. 

"What?" Spencer asked.

"Dismissed most of the data from the Shea killings?"

"Yes. While he said that he would have not interviewed a single person from that pack. While it seems counterproductive to what we are supposed to be doing, it's actually the best technique when dealing with more than one pack. O'Halloran and Lighthouse would have had to have stepped up to force him to take part so that their packs don't rebel. It's playing them against each other, and while they all knew that Hotch was doing it, there was nothing they could do." 

Spencer looked out into the bullpen to see that Prentiss and Aaron were talking to a few officers while Rossi was nowhere to be seen. Spencer frowned at the scene until Rossi came back from somewhere with Clemmons and a tray of coffee was being held by the two of them, each. Clemmons came into the room with Spencer and looked at the cups before handing over one to Spencer. He settled down the tray after picking up one and walking it over to Morgan. 

"Agent Jareau, Agent Rossi has yours."

"Who are the other two for?" JJ asked.

"Agent Hotchner had me get a mocha latte for Doctor Reid as well as a chai latte and an herbal tea for later." 

"Thanks, Detective Clemmons." Spencer took a sip of his mocha latte and sighed as it was from one of his favorite places. Spencer knew that Aaron was waiting for him to figure out what they needed to do next. Usually, there were not so many bodies, so it was quicker, but Spencer also had to worry about the pack lines and various things like that. It made for setting the geographic profile an arduous task. Spencer was up for the challenge. He knew that once he had set it and they had something to work with, Aaron was going to put him in the field. It was the only way to show that Aaron saw him as a full-fledged agent. Aaron calling him agent to Shea was a strategic thing. Men like Shea only looked at power as something to be cared about, and a doctor was something that anyone could do but becoming an agent, only the best did that, so that meant that he had something that was to be looked at. Spencer knew that he was going to be in the field more as well as all of the team referring to him more than normal. He was up for the task, though. 

The door opened again a little bit later, and the rest of the team piled in as well as Clemmons.

"Captain made me the lead on our side. Agent Hotchner invited me in for this."

"It's always a good thing to have locals help us with cases, no matter how little. It helps stop the thing that we are taking over. In this case, we are because it's three packs and your Captain doesn't want the headache of dealing with them." Spencer looked at Aaron and saw him giving him a supportive smile. Spencer felt good doing this. Being the lead. It was so rare that he was anywhere that he felt like he wanted to be but in this case, it would go better for everything. It might not make it easy, but it would keep Shea on his toes. 

"No one does. I volunteered for this. The other detectives are working on other cases. They are needed for those. I was one of the ones on this, and my partner-" Clemmons looked out into the bullpen at a man before he looked back at Spencer. "My partner is one of the ones that has been thrown from Shea pack for questioning Shea himself when he was meting out what he calls justice." 

"Sounds like we have a really big issue with the Shea back in general," Rossi said. 

"The Captain is looking into more cases like mine, and I will be stepping up to bring charges against the pack if it's found they did it to other people. I'm not going to be talking to the Captain about that until the end of the case though. I don't want my focus split."

"You know I would help with that. On the court side of things. I have the qualifications to work as a lawyer across all fifty states," Aaron offered. 

"We have a lot of issues with Shea pack," Clemmons offered.

"That's an understatement," Morgan said as he looked at the file that was on the table where Spencer had finished reading it. "I heard that most of the issues with a pack are with Shea trying to be a bully."

"Shea and his pack are full of bullies. There had been families leave the pack instead of leaving a child behind when it is shown that a child was not going to be a Shifter. Most packs use those to keep the genes strong pairing them off with strong Shifters. Shea casts them out. I was put up for foster care, my father went by all legal means and a family that had left the pack years before took me in. I was raised like their own. I went on runs in the public areas with the family. Shea tried a few times to shame the other families who took in kids that were taken care of legally, but the foster system stepped in on cases a few times. When the first body showed up, not a single officer in this unit was shocked. Actually no I take that back. We were shocked it hadn't happened before now. So where do we start."

"With what we know," Aaron said, and he waved at Spencer to start to talk. 

Spencer knew that Clemmons' head was going to spinning when he was done, but he was okay with that. Clemmons would learn, and it would be a good lesson for him. 


	6. Chapter 6

# Part 6

Aaron didn't trust the Shea pack at all. He especially didn't like Ethan, the man that had come to replace Jake Shea as the go-between between the cops and the pack. There was something creepy about Ethan that made Aaron's skin crawl. He had no proof a single bad thing to do with Ethan, so it wasn't like he could throw him in jail. Steven O'Halloran and Matthew Lighthouse were staying in the station in a show of unity. There were enough pack members in an out that Aaron didn't find it strange at all. It's where he would be if someone were killing members of his pack. He didn't mind it at all, and he was glad that they were not causing an issue. They spent a lot of time on the phone and talking to officers who were bringing in people. 

O'Halloran had made sure that his people were fed after they gave statements if they were one of the last to see someone alive. Lighthouse even held onto the baby of a couple who was interviewed. They seemed like the kinds of pack leaders who actually cared about their pack as a whole instead of just the status of being a leader.

"Agent Hotchner?" Clemmons asked as he walked up with a bottle of pressed juice in his hand. He handed it over. Aaron saw that it was his favorite flavor. "Doctor Reid asked me to give that to you."

"Thank you, Detective. You don't have to be our little gopher, you are a detective in your own right."

"I know, but Agents Morgan and Prentiss are talking to Doctor Reid, and a lot of it was over my head, so I started to leave and remembered when Agent Jareau had brought that in for you but you were busy. I was going to ask, but Doctor Reid said you were thirsty for more than just coffee and since I was leaving if I could take it to you that would be awesome." 

"You can call us by our last names. We like you, we don't make people we like to stand on ceremony. I'm Hotch, and Agent Jareau is JJ other than that last names."

"Yes, Mister Hotch," Clemmons said with a wink.

"So you seem like you need to ask questions. Ask away. Unless you ask about private things, I don't bite."

"Well, I remember my father used to talk about the days when an Alpha rules the pack and that things were better but was forced to drop that and just become a pack leader instead of an Alpha."

"That's complicated, and it has almost everything to do with the fact that it takes more than an Alpha to run a pack. Wolves and such that is fine, there is also the fact that packs are more than just wolves. Wolves were one of the first Shifters that we have recorded the history of but as the tribes of our ancestors moved around the planet, more and more various animals were found. Like Morgan, he's a Grizzly Bear, and he's every bit the persona. Bears don't live in packs. There are a lot of animals that don't live in packs like that, so the Alpha part was dropped. Your pack is all foxes. Some like to live in skulks, and others don't. They don't have true Alphas like wolves do. We are no longer slaves to the nature of the wolves to make us be a group. We are pack, we are family."

"That's something that my father talked about, being a family, but yet he threw me out."

"That's because your father is weak. Just because you are not a Shifter doesn't mean that your children, if you have them, won't be. That's how packs stay alive, breeding. You are just as likely to have a Shifter child as not. Now though because you are not in the pack, you will go to a different one and spread your family out among it. It's killed a lot of packs before that kind of thinking. You should have been kept in the pack, treated as true family and then your kids would have grown up among a good family."

"Thanks, Agent Hotchner," Clemmons said. His face that said he was very happy for the knowledge even though it made him upset and Aaron understood him using his rank was a sign of respect. Clemmons nodded and then he was walking away. Aaron saw that O'Halloran and Lighthouse were talking between each other and kept on looking at the room where Spencer was alone for the moment. Morgan and Prentiss were probably talking to the next group of pack members. Aaron looked around to see that Dave was talking with JJ as another set was being led back into the interview rooms. 

Aaron was keeping an eye on everything as O'Halloran and Lighthouse were acting up. Aaron's phone chimed seven minutes later, and he saw the ME was ready to talk to him and to Spencer about what was found on the bodies. Aaron started back to where Spencer was when he saw that O'Halloran ad Lighthouse was entering the room Spencer was in. Aaron frowned and followed but didn't make himself fully known. They both stopped several feet from Spencer and did not block the door at all. It showed that as of right now, their intent wasn't to trap or to so far be mean to Spencer. Aaron leaned against the doorway and waited to see what was going to happen. 

"Agent Reid, can we talk to you?" Lighthouse asked as he shuffled in place. 

Spencer was ignoring them or not even noticing that they were there. It was one of the reasons why Aaron didn't like him being alone. Though Spencer knew that Aaron was in the building waiting on the ME with the newest body so he knew that Aaron would be watching, even if he was alone in the room. Spencer turned the page in the report that he was reading and his fingers were loose like they usually were. He didn't even realize that they were in there. Aaron pushed off the door jamb and walked the long way around the table to get to where Spencer was, making a show of him walking slow. As soon as he had cleared around the table to be in eyesight but Lighthouse and O'Halloran straightened up and kind of looked like deer in the headlights. 

"Reid," Aaron said as he clasped his hand on Spencer's shoulder. 

Spencer read to the end of the page and looked up at Aaron who just nodded his head over to where the other two leaders were. 

"Oh, sorry. Can I help you?"

Lighthouse's eyes flicked up to Aaron for a second, but all that Aaron did was settle his hip on the table right at Spencer's side. His body turned toward Spencer and the other two men. It was as close to a claim as he was willing to do at the moment. It also said that Aaron wasn't going to leave and they would have to ask him to leave. Aaron watched as the two of them had a conversation with their eyes as they looked at each other. Finally, O'Halloran nodded his head and turned to look at Spencer. 

"We want to offer our sincerest apologies to you, and we would like you to extend those to your mother as well. We failed as a pack to protect someone who needed it, and we will forever be shamed by that. We knew that things were not good. It's never happened to our knowledge that when a father has left his wife for that wife and any children, they have to be banished from a pack. We did not make sure that you were cared for or that you went into proper foster care and your mother got the help that she needed. You begged us both for help, and we denied you. Some of us more callously than others." O'Halloran looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. 

Aaron knew that it was hard for leaders of packs to admit they had done a lot of wrongs. 

"You know, growing up I thought that my family, my pack would never harm me. Then I was attacked by another kid just because I wanted to come and play with them. I was shocked as hell and very, very hurt. Of course, when I went home, mom was in her own little world, and she didn't notice the bruises on my body or the cut on my cheek until it was mostly healed. She asked what happened and I told her that I had tripped cause I was reading a book and got cut on a stick in the yard because it wasn't like she could do anything about it. I knew that going to anyone would have had me taken from her. I had lost my father, my pack, the family that was never supposed to leave me behind, and I was damned if I was going to lose the only family that I had left. She was all that I had left and the day that I had to put her into Bennington, alone was the second-worst day of my life." Spencer turned his eyes down onto the file he had been reading. He sighed and pushed it away. He looked up at Aaron, his eyes were stormy with emotion, but Aaron knew that there was nothing he could do to save him from the pain of the past. The only thing that he could do was be there for him when he crashed.

"We-" Lighthouse started, but he stopped when Spencer's head shot up to look at him. Spencer didn't stop looking at him, but he did reach out and lay his hand on Aaron's knee, taking a little support from that. 

"I never did get a good reason why my father left me behind instead of taking me. You would think as a Shifter, his instincts would be to protect his cub, no matter what the form I took was. Yet, there I was left alone. I know I’m smart. I knew how to run a household and what I didn't know I learned. I grew up way too soon. I was left to care for a mother who was more like my child than the adult. She couldn't focus on work, she barely made enough to keep us in food. I learned how to do things for other people so that I could get some money. I took care of eighty-eight people's taxes a year for half the rate of the closest cheapest place so I could have money for us. Some years it was less and others more. I mowed the grass for a lot of people. Thankfully, my teachers who liked me made sure that I could go to Caltech for free, including room and board and food. Then all I had to do was make sure that mom had what she needed. We had friends that helped on that front, but it wasn't the same. I was still making sure that she had coverage, and I had a way home if she had a freak out that needed me to calm down."

"Why did you not take him in?" Aaron asked because he knew that Spencer wasn't going to ask. 

"Right after the whole thing happened, Shea visited us alone and told us that taking you in would court war with his pack. He was still having issues with his pack over his way of leading as compared to Austin. There were a lot of issues with that, and they are still happening. I don't think that Shea is happy you are back in town at all even if any idiot could see that you have no care to take over a single pack or even be the voice of reason in any pack other than the one you are in now." Lighthouse pointedly looked at the hand that was on Aaron's knee.

"Shea is afraid of anything that means that he might have to share power. He doesn't even let his mate have a single say on anything to do with her kids. He makes all of the decisions. We really thought he would have burned out by now. Or someone would come and try and take it from him."

"He holds power by fear," Spencer said. 

"What?" O'Halloran asked.

"He has every single person in his pack, afraid of him. Whether it's threats of what would happen to their family if he was ousted like cult leaders do, that without them the whole thing fails and the worst is going to happen. Or that someone will get revenge on whoever takes over. Ethan out there is one of the worst. I almost got him thrown in jail for animal mutilation, but Shea made sure it was covered up when he was a teenager. Shea has groomed him until he's a perfect little deviant. I'm sure that if someone followed him around, they would find that he still tortures animals. That doesn't go away. Is the ME ready?" Spencer asked, looking up at Aaron as he closed the file he had been reading. 

"Yes." Aaron stood up, Spencer's hand falling off of his knee. 

"Agent Reid, do you accept our apologies?"

"I'm not the one that needs them. I turned out pretty damned good in life. I have a pack that loves me and a job that I love. A man that thinks that I am the best thing in the world. I am not the one that felt the loss of the pack the most. I adapted. My mother, on the other hand, she never recovered, losing everything in the world. She had moved here to Vegas to join her husband's pack, and she refused to go home to her birth pack as it was a sign of weakness to have a husband leave like that. She prayed every single night that someone would come and take me, but she knew that forcing me to go anywhere else would break me. Your apologies need to go to my mother. Stan, who lived next door to us will allow you to send her a letter, but words are shit. It's actions. I don't trust words from people anymore. I lost everything that mattered to me once, and words were shit when that happened. Actions are the only thing in the world that matter." Spencer stood up and picked u the file and shoved it down into the messenger bag that he carried. 

"Agent Reid," O'Halloran said. He pulled a sheet of paper and what looked like savings account book from his back pocket. 

Spencer just looked at the things, so Aaron reached over the table and took them from him, looking at them. It was a savings account book that was in the name of Diana Reid in trust of Spencer Reid. 

"I had our pack lawyer figure out how much money it costs for her to be where she is as it was no secret where you put her. I made sure that there is enough there now to cover several years and enough for each year will be added to it as well as the money for some books. I remember her love of books." Lighthouse looked very ashamed at that moment. "It's not the help you needed when it was actually needed, but it's what we need to assuage our own guilt."

Aaron looked at the sheet of paper next, and it was a letter from one of the more prominent law firms in the area that the contract between the two packs and the Reid family was waiting to be signed at Spencer's convenience. Aaron looked up at Spencer to see that he was staring at O'Halloran and Lighthouse. Aaron had no clue what Spencer was going to do, and he wasn't going to offer his advice unless Spencer asked for it. Spencer knew his mind. He knew that he needed to go to protect his mother. Aaron knew that Spencer made more than enough to cover what Diana Reid's insurance didn't on her needs at Bennington. Aaron also knew that Spencer kept her in everything that she needed or wanted. There was nothing that she needed. 

"I'll meet with your lawyer, and we will discuss what to do with the money that you want to use to buy your guilt back. I only want a single thing. I never want another child from pack issues to ever feel like they are nothing. I don't want anyone else ever hurt like this again. The Captain is starting to look into other kids who had been displaced by Shea. You go to him and tell him everything. The money will go to a foundation that I give it to in the area that helps Shifter children in need, it covers small packs and medium ones as well. So it doesn't just go to the ones that are lucky enough to be born into a big pack. I don't want your money buying my mother a single thing. It would make her sick to even think that she ate a single piece of candy that was bought with your money." 

O'Halloran and Lighthouse nodded, bowing a little before they left. Aaron was a little stunned by Spencer's reaction, but it was more the emotions that had been in Spencer's voice and the tone that he used. It was damned scary, but then Aaron knew that he could be scary, to UnSubs. Though he figured that the two leaders were UnSubs of a different kind. 

"You handled that well," Aaron said after the door was shut to the room. 

"I hate them almost more than Shea. I don't want a single bit of their money to ever touch mom or me."

"I know. I wish there were more that I could do to protect you, but I can't. I can just be here you need. Tonight when we head back to our rooms, I want to hold you."

"We are all rooming paired up, right?"

"Yes, Prentiss and JJ in one and Morgan and Dave in the other. Dave isn't the happiest, but he understands why I don't want anyone alone, especially him and JJ. they are the weaker of the parts of us. At least in these cases." Aaron looked out to see that Clemmons was heading back into a room with Morgan to talk to someone. Probably someone that he knew. It was always good to use what they had to get that connection to some witnesses or even victims families. "

"Ready to head to the ME?" Spencer asked. 

"Yes. Then we are going to dump sites with Morgan. I want you along because you know the area. Prentiss is going to take Clemmons to abduction sites to help as the person who knows."

"Sounds good. Then we can get dinner. When the case is done, I want to spend a little time with mom."

"I can have that happen even if you fly back commercially." 

"I don't want a lot of time with her. I just...I've not been home since I've begun shifting again. I've not told her about it in the letters. I wanted to do it in person. I don't know how she is going to react. She might be broken inside, but she still has the instincts of a Shifter. She's going to know. She always supported me in my decision to not shift, but I don't know if that was to support me or because she didn't want me to be one." 

"You'll never know unless you actually go and see her. I'll be here, no matter what. I'll drive you there if you want and sit in the car."

"She wants to meet you, as Aaron, not as Hotch. I hoped you could be up to that."

Aaron looked around and then pressed a kiss to Spencer's forehead. "I'll do anything that you want." Aaron meant it to. He'd stay in the car or go in or do both, the vehicle first and then going in second. Anything that would make Spencer happy. After the case was done so they could relax and focus on being together. That was all that mattered. 


	7. Chapter 7

# Part 7

"This is a very unusual dumpsite," Morgan said as he stepped over to the swimming pool where the second victim had been found. Spencer was across the pool from him looking out into the streets that surrounded it. He was listening to his team members, but he was also thinking about a lot of other things. 

"You have no idea," Spencer said.

"What?" Aaron asked. He was crouched at the edge of the pool, looking down into it. 

"This land doesn't touch any of the three lands of the large pack, but this does butt the area of two of the medium pack's lands. This pool is neutral grounds for every pack in the city, but it's monitored by two medium packs. The body was dumped after the lifeguards had arrived to work and they were getting changed or things set up in the office. No one heard the dump or anyone walking past the bathrooms, which there were at least one male and one female in them." Spencer turned to head back to the pool that had been drained to be cleaned and then filled again. The blood had gotten into the water pumping system, so there was no way to not to clean it without emptying it. The lifeguards had been shocked as hell and then only after the body was stuck against a water intake area did one even think about shutting off the flow of water. It had been interesting to read the report, but the sight had been horrific to the lifeguards. None of them had ever seen a dead body before, and Spencer felt sad about the fact that they couldn't claim that anymore. They were teenagers or young adults still in college, they didn't need that.

"The UnSub knows what they are doing," Aaron said as he stood out of his crouch. He was looking around. "There are several points of entry if they are limber enough, and we know we are dealing with a Shifter. The smell of chlorine would mask the Shifter smell, and the body holds no evidence. We have a few ways of getting anything else from the bodies and just like the others before this one, they play with the whole city."

"Which is either someone from the large pack trying to lay claim to everything everywhere or it's a person from a small pack that can slip around unnoticed," Spencer pointed out.

"Yes. It's going to be near impossible to track them like this."

Aaron phone went off, and Spencer turned to look at him, watching as he looked at the screen with an interesting look on his face. "The UnSub has upped their game. We have a new set of bodies."

"Set of bodies?" Morgan asked.

"Yes, three of them. We are waiting on identification on what packs they are from."

"What are the names?" Spencer asked.

"Carlos Valdez, Marie Holmes, and Vicky Slater."

"That's one from each pack unless I'm mistaken."

"Reid?" Morgan asked.

"I knew their parents or of them. They were all clients of my father's on various things. Father was a damned good lawyer, and he served all packs as that is what his firm did. Where were they found? Why did it take so long to tell us?"

"According to Dave, the police was just called and arrived on the scene. They weren't sure since there were three bodies, but they were left in the water." Aaron looked at his watch on his wrist before looking up. "A local play area that has a kid area that has water running in it. It's one of those splash places? Not more than about half an inch of water on the ground but there are buckets that dump it and such. Staff had turned it on while they got the inside going to allow the water could get warmed up and such. As with here, didn't notice much at all until the blood started to be dumped out of the buckets." 

"Did any?" Morgan didn't say more than that. 

"No. There were no kids present at the time. There could have been. Dave says as one of the staff brings her daughter with her until the bus picks him up. Are we done here?" Aaron asked as he looked at Spencer.

"Yes. Let's head to the new dumpsite."

Spencer used Aaron's phone to find the address before he put it into his phone to look up the name of the place and such. It was something that was newer, meaning there shouldn't be a lot of significance to the UnSub.

"Hotch," Spencer said as they were about halfway to the new dumpsite. "We didn't know if anyone was missing."

"Prentiss and Clemmons are looking into that."

"And this place is only four years old, and there are no hits in the newspapers for the area beside the fact that it was open and doing well. There are no deaths, no lawsuits, or anything that I can find. Garcia or Sofia can do a deeper search."

"Four years? So it's not like the other places that have been here for a long time. This place can't hold significance like the UnSub lost a child or anything like that," Morgan said as he leaned up between the seats to look at both Spencer and Aaron. 

"Exactly so we can assume that none of the places hold value outside of the water used to get rid of smell and evidence."

"Yes, which means any place that has treated water with chemicals to stop water stagnation, and the like will be a target. We were wrong though that just Shea was up next. This was a hit on all three." Spencer read the text that had been sent to all of them from Sofia.

"Garcia confirmed?" Aaron asked.

"Her or Sofia. It's Sofia that has texted. I'm texting her that I need a list of all places that have fountains, murals, anything with treated running water. There might be a pattern I do not see with the other places like ponds and stuff thrown in. I'll narrow the list when we get back to the station. I'll stay there with Prentiss going forward. I need to think, and moving around isn't helping."

"Whatever you want." Aaron laid his hand down on Spencer's knee. 

The sight of the dumpsite was sickening to Spencer. The other places were after most of the blood and such had been cleaned up, but the whole area was covered in watery blood as well as the three bodies. It was horrific that so much had been drained from the victims. Seeing it like this told Spencer that the hate against the packs was immense. He could see why Shea would think that it was Spencer. If Spencer actually hated the packs. He didn't. He didn't care about them at all really, he had no fucks to give on what they did or how they went about their lives, outside of harming others. 

"I'm going to call Prentiss and have her come and get me," Spencer said. 

"Are you sure?" Aaron asked. 

The trio of them had been at the crime scene for two hours, CSU had already been to collect the bodies ad the blood was being collected as much as possible. Spencer would go to the ME's after the bodies had been processed and the prelim report was done. 

"I have seen what I need, and now I need to play with my maps." 

One of the officers who was keeping people out laughed at that. 

"I can take him," Clemmons said as he stepped up. "Prentiss sent me with a file that she found for Doctor Reid anyway."

"Hotch?" Spencer asked. 

"Text as soon as you are in the station," Aaron said. 

Spencer nodded and waved at Clemmons to lead the way. Clemmons settled into the driver's seat of the unmarked car and waited for Spencer to settle down into his seat. He saw that there was a cup of something in each holder. 

"I also got you an iced chai latte. That way in case the scene was too much you could drink it later," Clemmons said. 

Spencer looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Clemmons was nice, almost too nice and Spencer just wasn't used to that outside of the team. He almost wanted to say something about the fact that he had someone, but he stopped when he saw the little sticker on Clemmons dash. It was a peace symbol that was colored in the asexual colors. 

"Ace?" Spencer asked.

"Yes. I'm very, very happy alone at the moment. I don't have enough of a handle on me yet to even attempt to add anyone else into this."

"I understand that. If it weren't for the fact that my partner is the reason I even touched my Shifter side again, I wouldn't be trying to start a relationship while adjusting to the new way that I look at myself. He's helped me more just by being there than I thought he would."

"I can't shift, but I guess I just don't understand why you would want to not shift."

"I wasn't ever going to be the Shifter that my family wanted, meaning my pack, so I didn't care. Shifting is what caused all of the issues to begin with. It's the bane of my life before this. I hated that part of myself a little bit because it was another thing that set me apart and I could get rid of it and live a happy life I was too smart, too everything braininess for my father. I wasn't male enough, Shifter enough for him. So I cut off that part of me, and I embraced my braininess." Spencer saw the station up in front, and there was a small pack of Sheas standing outside of it smoking. 

"Don't worry, we are going around to the back. It's the entrance that they can't use but you can as visiting law enforcement. Prentiss should meet us out there."

"Good." Spencer unbuckled and started to get out when the pack of Sheas came around the building. Clemmons shot out of the car as fast as possible. 

"This is a restricted area, and only law enforcement and visiting law enforcement are allowed back here. You had to pass three different signs warning you of that." Clemmons drew his gun and aimed it at the lead man coming around toward Spencer's side of the car. Spencer just opened the door and got out. That gave the Shea pack man a little pause. He stopped and looked at Spencer with a bit of wariness.

"We just want to have a private discussion with the Feeb here." 

"And I have nothing to say to you," Spencer said. He drew his gun and aimed it. "This is a restricted area, and according to the sign you passed intruders will be shot on sight."

"You ain't going to shoot us."

"He might, but I think I'll get my bullet in first," the Captain said. 

All three of the Shea men turned around to see the Captain and four other officers on the side of the line that marked restricted access. 

"Get out, and if you step foot on my grounds again, I'll shoot first and ask questions later, at least until this case is done. You have zero reasons to be back here. If you wanted to talk to him, you need to talk to him inside the station house when he deems that he can based on the case that he is working."

"This isn't over," one man said before he and his two other pack mates turned to leave. 

"That's a good idea. Be prepared for a court summons on trespassing."

The three men didn't react at all, but Spencer figured that they might even ignore it. 

"Vegas has a burgeoning Shifter court," the Captain said. 

"Really?" Spencer asked.

"Yes. Shifter judge, jury pools. Shea has had little to do with it, but Lighthouse and O'Halloran have been beacons in that. Federal help has been rendered on getting it up and running. Each state will be getting on soon it seems. New York and LA's have been up and running for a year. DC is far behind due to its status as a no pack zone."

"I'll have to talk to Hotch about it. It sounds interesting." 

"I have a copy of the paperwork we were sent about it all. Since I'm the local head of the police force line of Shifters."

"It's headed to full reveal, isn't it?" Spencer asked.

"We think so. It's estimated about half of the country knows about them but keeps it a secret. It's only a matter of time until it's countrywide knowledge, and then the rest of the world will have to follow."

"Fear is a powerful tool, and the fear that your blabbing will hurt someone stops a lot of regular Humans from talking about it."

"This is very, very true." 

Spencer followed Clemmons inside as the Captain stayed outside to do something. Spencer pulled his phone as soon as he was in the room with Prentiss and texted Aaron the issue that had come up. Aaron was not going to be happy, but it had been resolved without someone shooting off their gun. Spencer had been prepared to fire if Clemmons did. 

"You okay?" Prentiss asked as Spencer dropped down into his chair in front of the board. 

"Yes. Shea's pack tried to corner me, but Clemmons was there, and the Captain helped shove them off. I don't understand why the hell Shea would be that afraid of me. I'm not a threat to anything of his. I want nothing to do with his pack. I hate his pack for the pain it caused me, but I got over that a long time ago. And we've got more bodies and nothing makes sense. The dumpsites are just countermeasures to make sure that no one can smell whoever dumps the bodies. That last one was a bloodbath."

Prentiss started to laugh, and it took Spencer a few seconds to figure out what made her laugh. He ticked over the words and found it and allowed himself to chuckle. 

"So what do you have on the plan?" Prentiss asked.

"Figuring out the pattern to the dumpsites. Do we have the kidnap locations?"

"Not all of them. We have it for one, Slater. The other two, no one knows. It seems they were taken in the night and tortured and killed before being dumped early this morning. Garcia is trying to track them digitally while a few officers are trying to figure out who saw them last and when."

"This case...seems random but I don't think that any of it is random. None of the dumpsites are beholden to anyone single pack, big or medium. It's near impossible to track small packs and their areas. This town smells of Shifters, and that's because it's got such a large population density of them. Vegas has the third-highest density in the country. New York and LA are just above with LA being the highest."

"So that's slowing us down. Well, I'm going over the reports that were typed up from the interviews. I'll chime in with anything I think you need to know and then we can go from there while you play with your maps." 

Spencer turned to pay attention to the maps. Trying to see the points he was missing. Garcia texted him spots on the map that was just chemically treated water but also public, and he marked them in red, leaving the other things like ponds and such as blue. He also marked swimming pools that were private in light blue and sky blue was anything that was private and chemical but not pools. The map was horrible looking. It was covered in a lot of pins, and Spencer knew that he was missing something, but he wasn't sure what it was. It was either small, and he didn't see the tree for the forest, or it was large, and he didn't see the forest for the trees.

"Hey," a voice said. 

Spencer turned to see that it was Aaron standing in the doorway with a brown paper bag of food.

"There is a park across the street, and the team is eating lunch there. Let's go." 

"Sure." Spencer stood up, stretching out his body from being stuck in a single position. He looked to see that Prentiss was getting up as well. Spencer linked his arm with hers as they exited the room. There were a lot of cops around, but it was near the time when some were coming back to take care of action reports and the others to grab a bite to eat. 

Morgan was already eating one of three burgers that he had on the table in front of him when they got out there. Aaron settled a box of food in front of Spencer and inside were sweet potato fries, two onion rings, and a bacon and cheese cheeseburger. It smelled wonderful. Breakfast felt like such a long time ago with the dumpsites, new dump site, and maps taking up Spencer's brain. He looked at the time and saw that it was two in the afternoon. He was shocked that so much time had gone by. 

"So, why did they want to talk to you?" JJ asked, looking at Spencer.

"I have no clue. I really don't. They can't be scared of me, right?"

"Unless they are scared you are going to press charges against Shea for abandoning you and forcing others to do the same. That could ruin his pack with the new court system here in town," Aaron said. 

"Yes, I had no clue that there was even a Shifter court coming into play."

"It's new. It will be mostly staffed by the same people, but it will allow for Shifters to have Shifters being a part of It all from judges to juries. Humans, unless they have been around us for a long time don't do well at understanding our drives. Humans who grow up in packs do better, and they will also be a part of it. Shifters will have to reveal what they are when it all goes live for the whole country, but most have a way of doing that anyway, especially when it comes to medical. The medical side will follow not long after. There are too many of us for the government to just wipe us out and with the blood being more and more diluted and more Humans mating with Shifters, it's going to be not long before it's going to become a more open secret."

"We go places, and I see it," Prentiss said. She pointed with a fry at the air above. "I mean here. They have a whole station devoted to making sure that Shifters are kept in line. New York had a few squads spread throughout. Most law enforcement knows what they need to know. It's already an open secret, it's just most Humans are very, very unaware of what's going on around them."

"You aren't kidding on that," Rossi said.

The discussion turned to slightly nicer topics after that and Spencer was able to just relax and let his mind float around on whatever it wanted. Then it would be back to the grind.


	8. Chapter 8

# Part 8

Aaron watched as Spencer rolled over in bed. It was their second morning after a night in Vegas and Spencer was sleeping, but he wasn't sleeping well. He was sleeping well enough that Aaron wasn't worried yet, not enough to do anything drastic but he had slipped into Spencer's bed halfway through the night. He reached out and laid his hand over Spencer's back, spreading his fingers out to touch the most total area of Spencer's back. Spencer settled down quickly with just that single touch. It was always a good feeling to Aaron that Spencer trusted him that much. After years of fearing Shifters, that Spencer could trust a Shifter that much showed that he mainly just feared the Shifters that were from where he lived before. He was still wary around new Shifters, especially on the base but nearly every single Shifter that was there on base understood what it meant that he is an adult and just now smelling like a Shifter. 

Spencer was the smartest man that Aaron knew, but sometimes he got too lost in his head for things that were the only reason that Aaron didn't like him being without another Shifter from the team with him. Aaron would hate to have to have an entire pack censured about something like cornering Spencer when he was lost in his head while trying to figure out something. 

The night had been spent a little off because there was something bothering Spencer about the locations of the dumpsites across the city, but it was elusive to him. Aaron wasn't sure if he was pushing himself too much or there just wasn't enough data. Aaron hoped that today spent reading over the files that had anything to do with small Shifter packs needing help or needing reined in would help to settle him. The Captain had been compiling them all so that Spencer knew everything that they did. Spencer loved paper trails more than was reasonable, and the whole team knew it. Aaron found it cute.

"You should be sleeping," Spencer said as he turned his head to look at Aaron. He was wearing a smile on his face and looked utterly adorable to Aaron with his sleep-mussed hair and the tired look on his face.

"Not really, I got enough sleep. I just haven't wanted to get of bed." Aaron leaned over and nuzzled his nose into the side of Spencer's neck before pressing a kiss to his cheek. "You've been tossing and turning again, so I wanted to make sure that you got enough sleep. It's not a hardship to lay in bed and touch you."

"Well, if you don't want to have to do something else then you should probably stop touching me." 

"Oh really?" Aaron asked. He pulled his hand back, slowly. He even let his fingers dig in slightly as he let his hand fall down to the bed, nails raking down Spencer's side. He flipped his hand over and wiggled it under Spencer's side before using it to roll Spencer onto his back. Spencer was closer to Aaron's side of the bed and the middle than anywhere else. Aaron crawled over him and settled on his hands and knees over his body. 

Both of them were already naked, they didn't usually sleep with many clothes on at all, and it was warm in Vegas which meant that clothing made them sweat, even with the air conditioning in the room. Aaron grabbed the sheet and pulled it over his body before he laid down in the V made by Spencer's legs with a little shuffling to get Aaron on the inside. Aaron kissed Spencer's lips when he was close enough. They weren't going to do anything too strenuous, but Aaron was very okay with a little rubbing and grinding. He heard Spencer fumbling for the bottle of lube that Aaron had slipped on the shelf of the nightstand by Spencer's side of the bed.

"If we do this, you have to promise to try and get a little more sleep," Aaron whispered across Spencer's lips before he started to brush his lips back and forth across Spencer's lips. 

"I promise," Spencer said. He wiggled his hand down to slick up both of their cocks. 

"I'll clean you up, and then we can shower to get rid of the smell of sex after you wake up. I'll stay in bed with you while you try and sleep."

"The people who clean the rooms will know. At least one of them is a Shifter. I can smell them." Spencer lunged up and kissed Aaron, not letting him answer. 

Aaron kept up the kissing, rutting their bodies together. Spencer wrapped an arm around Aaron's waist, and his knees tightened. Aaron knew exactly what he was about to do, and he wasn't going to stop him. Spencer flipped them on the bed, the move smooth and controlled. His training with Morgan and on occasion Prentiss to use the muscles he was putting on his body from running to good use. Aaron didn't even fight it when Spencer pulled them apart. He waited to see what Spencer was going to do. Spencer raised himself up to where he was balanced up on his hands while he was looking down at Aaron while still rocking their hips together. Aaron felt himself getting closer to orgasm with each thrust. Spencer was still just staring down at him, and usually, that would have been something that made him feel self-conscious. Spencer loved this. Even if he was on the bottom, he liked to just look into Aaron's eyes. 

Spencer said it was because when Aaron was aroused and getting pleasure his eyes glowed. That he was getting used to the sight and it not freaking him out. Also that Aaron's eyes were even more beautiful when they were giving off the Shifter glow that was standard. Aaron had never thought that his eyes, in any way, shape, or form were beautiful. Aaron knew that Spencer thought he was handsome, kind, and loving. He had known the handsome thing. It was hard to not be a Shifter and not know that some were attracted to you in some way, shape, or form. The scent of them changed with even just the slight bit of arousal. Spencer though had done it a few times with other people, always humans though. Or those he thought were human. Aaron had never smelled it when they were around other Shifters, even when that Shifter fit the profile of the people that Spencer was attracted to. 

Aaron grabbed Spencer's ass with one hand, focusing on the moment, on the rush of blood through his veins, the feel of Spencer on him, thrusting their cocks together. The rub of cocks together. The smell of Spencer when he was aroused. Aaron loved that smell. The smell of sex in the air that blended the two of them together. It was heady and wonderful and just perfect. 

"Come on, come for me," Spencer whispered into the dark of the room. There was just enough light coming in from the rising sun for Aaron's eyes to see Spencer but not a lot more than that. Aaron's night vision was excellent, though. Prentiss's was better, but Aaron was no slouch. 

"Spencer," Aaron sighed as his body clenched and he came. He felt the muscles in his lower body started to tremble as he tried not to thrust up into Spencer like he wanted. Spencer would probably fall off of him. Spencer ground down into him as he came himself just as Aaron was finishing. Spencer slumped down into him, falling to the side a little and cuddling into Aaron. Aaron wrapped an arm around his back to keep him close until he got up to get the worst of it off of them. Aaron buried his nose into Spencer's neck, smelling the sweat, the pheromones, and their combined release. It was a smell that, for now, was not too strong, but if they didn't shower, everyone would know they were intimate. Typically, Aaron wouldn't care, but with them being here, Aaron was worried about what that would do to Spencer's reputation. 

Aaron felt Spencer fall back asleep quickly after orgasm. It was a weird thing that Aaron had figured out. Spencer usually didn't last long after sex before he passed out if they stayed in bed. It was nice as it was a way to get him to sleep when he was having trouble. Aaron ran his hand up and down Spencer's back until he heard his phone chime. Aaron reached out to grab it, one-handedly disconnecting the charger cord from it. He saw that it was Dave telling him that breakfast was on him whenever everyone got up and got ready. Aaron knew that he was doing it because he wanted to eat somewhere and would rather pay so that everyone would go where he wanted than to fight them. Aaron was pretty sure that everyone on the team had figured that out. None of them really minded. 

Two and a half hours later, with Spencer and Morgan going to the areas where Garcia was sending them to track the abduction points, Aaron and Dave were going to talk to a few other people who knew the newest victims. They still did not have a thing on the actual points so Aaron hoped that they would be able to do it using what Garcia was able to find out about the victims and their last moves and then what is around that area. Clemmons was going with them. Aaron figured that the man was going to get some kind of bump from this and he was glad. He had a good solid head on his shoulders and could go really far as long as he stayed true to those morals that he had. 

"So how is the kid really doing?" Dave asked as he leaned back in the chair that he was sitting in. The last person they had been talking to had left, and they were waiting on the arrival of the next. Thankfully the station was a neutral zone, or they would have to go to the home of each person. That wasn't something that they liked to do as that took way too much time instead of setting up meeting times and sticking to them. JJ had done a coffee run for them before she had gone with Prentiss for a short trip to see a lady who had a few sick kids and didn't want to leave the house with them to meet with them. Aaron could understand, and it was part of why he sent JJ and Prentiss. Sicks kids made for antsy Shifters.

"He's doing well. His sleeping issues are ones that he's had on other cases and is no worse than it sometimes is on those. I can't tell if it's more than that. I think that when we get home, he'll be better. Calmer. He still fights his instincts and his ways of doing things. He still sometimes get nervous when he's around Shifters on the streets."

"I didn't realize that his pack was that bad to him. I mean we heard him. We heard it all on the jet but to see how the Shea pack has acted toward him. The scare tactic. There is a lot going on, and none of it is simple and easy."

"Jake Shea is going to keep on going until someone comes in and stops him and I think it's going to be one of the bigger packs in the state or the courts. There is something rotten inside of that pack, and I think I could probably lay money that it started to infect the pack before the Reids were ousted from it."

"There is something very rotten about that man, and I agree that he probably worked on the people around the elder Reid before going in for the kill."

"Packs follow strong leaders but not always the one that wins in a fight. I've seen packs torn apart. Shea seems to rule by fear instead of actual leadership skills." Aaron stopped as he heard steps coming towards them. It was another officer who was escorting Janine Drake to them. 

Janine was the girlfriend of Vicky Slater. She was a beautiful woman and very sad at the moment. 

"Please have a seat, is there anything you would like us to get you?"

"No, thank you." She sat down in the chair and scooted it forward. 

Aaron grabbed the tissues that were on the table and handed them over. The officer set three bottles of water down on the table just inside the door and then shut the door and left. The room was a nice room. It looked like an office meeting room instead of an interrogation room. 

"When was the last time you saw Vicky?" Aaron asked. Vicky was the hardest so far to track as she had left her cell at home that day, so there was no way to track her like that. She had also it seemed used cash.

"Three days ago. I work out of town two days a week. I just got back into town today." 

"When was the last time that you spoke to her?" Dave asked. 

"The night she was taken. We were talking, and she said that someone else was calling her and she'd call me right back, but she never did. I tried calling her back after about ten minutes, and I never got through. It went straight to voicemail. I thought it was strange, but I wasn't too concerned as it was later in the evening and maybe she got distracted after getting home and forgot to call me back before bed."

"Was that normal?" Dave asked.

"No, she's never not called me back, but there is something going on in the pack that has her worried, and I figured that it was something to do with that."

"And do you know what's going on with the pack?"

Dave seemed to be doing well with reaching her so far, so Aaron kept his mouth shut. Janine seemed very grief-ridden, and that was about standard for this. Aaron wasn't worried that she had anything to do with her girlfriend being kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Thought she might know something and not know it.

"Just that there is some unquiet. There are a few who are upset at the way that some things are being done. Vicky's father had been strong into it before he died."

"Died?" Dave asked.

Aaron opened up the file that they had on Vicky and saw that her father had died about a year before in a standard car crash with a drunk driver. There was a small dot after each name which on files for Vegas meant that each was a Shifter. Drunks were rare but not that rare that it was a shocker that one killed someone. Aaron had seen a few in his years alive. It was a standard open and shut case with the driver killing not only themselves but another. The vehicles had crashed in such a way that neither had a chance of surviving.

"Vicky was sure that someone had set her father up to be killed. I tried to calm her down, but she lost her mother when she was five in a pack fight over females. Someone protested her choice in a mate and challenged her father. Her mother tried to put a stop to it, and her throat was ripped open with the other male thinking that it was someone else protesting his want to claim someone else's mate.

"I didn't think that packs did that anymore," Aaron said. It had been stopped slowly over the years, and last that Aaron knew, no pack in the United States did it. It had been deemed archaic that women couldn't choose their own choice of mate. 

"It doesn't happen often, but I know that Vicky's mother was the first and there have been four since then. It's stupid and archaic. I hate that a male thinks that they can choose who I love. I'm a lesbian. I don't want a cock and yes I've tried to have sex with a man, I didn't like it at all. Vicky has even tried a strap on, and I don't like it. She likes it though, so I fuck her with it. Fucked." Janine started to cry, and Aaron knew that it would take a few minutes for her to settle. He handed over the tissues and let her take a few of them as Aaron stood up to grab the bottles of water. He settled one in front of her and then the other two in front of him and Dave. 

"That sounds barbaric to me," Dave said.

Janine huffed and gave Dave a smile. 

"It's the life we have to lead. Shea has already stated that no matter what he will not tolerate anyone leaving the pack to go to another. He's threatened to kill the family of anyone who does and then and only then will he kill them." 

Aaron looked at Dave and Dave nodded. 

"Janine, if you would like to leave the Shea pack, I'm sure that you can leave safely, he can't start a war over this, and that's what would happen."

"Look what he did to the Reids. It's rumored that he killed the little genius because the kid tried to undermine him."

"Spencer Reid?" Dave asked. 

"Yes. He was such a sweet boy. Strange but genius does that to people. He was kicked out of the pack for insubordination and then killed when he tried to take over the pack as a child."

"Spencer Reid isn't dead," Dave said.

"What?" Janine looked up at him shocked. 

"Do you remember what he looks like?" Aaron asked. 

"Yes." 

Aaron pulled out his cellphone. He had a single picture of Spencer on it, it was one of Spencer and Jack. They were both smiling at Aaron. He turned his phone around, and Janine gasped. 

"He's part of our team. He has been for a while. He's here working on the case."

"Shea will kill him then to keep his position. He's going to kill me for..." Janine started to cry. 

"Give us the names of your family that you want to be protected. We will protect them," Aaron said. 

Janine looked up at him, and whatever she saw she seemed to trust as she rattled off the names of two people, her brother, and sister who had no family of their own. 

"I'll send Morgan and Clemmons," Dave said. 

"Have Reid meet up with Prentiss and JJ," Aaron said. 

"I will."

"The packs going to be in trouble, isn't it?"

"Not everyone. We don't destroy packs like that. The cancer will be removed, and those who infected the pack will face trial for what they have done. I'm going to keep you here. The Shea pack has been barred from entering this place outside of the liaison that Shea himself chose. No one is going to get you."

"Vicky was thinking of leaving, finding someplace that we three could go. I love Vicky because she loved my siblings and me. She was wonderful and helped us in the wake of our parents dying in a house fire."

"What was the cause?"

"Faulty wiring in a heating unit in basement. I told mom time and again that she needed to get a new one, but she said that it has been fine for years."

"And other's heard you mention it?" Aaron asked.

Janine just nodded. 

Aaron was going to make it his personal crusade to get to the bottom of the Shea pack and what they were doing. It had been a long time since a pack had acted out like this and acted more like a cult than a family. He wasn't that shocked given what he knew. He also knew that Spencer wasn't safe. He now had an understanding of why Shea had risked sending people to take him from the station. His entire hold on the pack demanded that he do it. Spencer wasn't safe at all. 


	9. Chapter 9

# Part 9

Spencer looked around the area they had been shown to. The O'Halloran compound looked nothing like a cult compound. In fact, it was a place that Spencer would have loved to live when he had lived in Vegas. It had a park in the center of the area, and there were no real walls but just house after house around that park. It was a beautiful place and no matter where you went, you heard kids playing, saw them playing, and saw them being able to be kids. 

Prentiss sat down beside him but Spencer kind of ignored her a little bit. He just watched the kids play in the park. He could feel the eyes of the adults in the area on him. He was glad of that as it meant that they didn't trust outsiders, but none of them were hostile to the two other Shifters that were not of their pack. 

A soccer ball came flying at Spencer's head. He reached up and caught it before looking to find the kids that were playing. One of them ran up to him, out of breath and a smile on her face. 

"I'm sorry!" the girl cried out. "My brother's kick went really bad. He's just learning."

"It's okay. It would have been okay if I had been hit. Here you go." Spencer handed to ball over to her. 

"Did you want to play with us?" The girl pointed to where there was a group of kids from teenagers to younger playing on a field just ten feet over. 

"I don't know."

"Go and do it. We were early." Prentiss bumped her shoulder into Spencer's. 

Spencer looked around for the adult that was watching the group, and he waited for them to nod or shake their head. There was a nod after a moment. 

"Sure. Now, I'm not the greatest at this. I've been learning with my partner's kid, and he's much better than me." 

"That's okay. I'm the only one of this group that plays." The girl tucked the ball under her arm and reached out to take Spencer's hand and tugged her with him. It was like she was afraid that he was going to run away from her. Introductions were made all around on their names and such. Spencer filed them all away. 

"My name is Cherish," the girl said with a grin after she had introduced all of the others. 

"Cherish, huh? That's a very pretty name."

"It's what my mother called me when I was born her gift that she would cherish for the rest of her life." There was a tone in her voice that said that it seemed the mother hadn't had a very long life. Spencer didn't ask though. 

"Come on, Valdez, let's play!" The eldest girl Sabrina said. 

Spencer pushed the name from his mind for the moment. They had come to talk to Carlos Valdez's little sister about him. Why he would be targeted. Spencer remembered the file. Father died after he tried to break up a fight between two humans at a bar. Mother pregnant and died in childbirth because of lack of care. The file had been Carlos's real file, the one that said he was from the Shea pack. Carlos had packed up what he wanted from his childhood home and went to seek refuge with his uncle in the O'Halloran pack. His mother had changed packs when she had fallen in love with a man who had been in at the time the Reid pack. Spencer was pretty sure that the Shea pack hadn't allowed her to have the care that she needed to have a successful birth. That meant that Carlos was right to leave the pack with his new baby sister to take care of. Cherish had been a surprise at the end of their mother's fertile time. Carlos had turned eighteen just days before Cherish had been born. 

The pack imperative for a kid who just became an adult in a hard way like that demanded that Carlos protect his sister from something that he thought would harm her. Spencer pushed those thoughts away though and focused on the game in front of him. He was put on the team that only had one teenager while the other had two. 

Spencer lost track of time as he played with them. The score wasn't kept, but each goal was celebrated by everyone, no matter what team they were on. Spencer dropped down to the ground and felt the rest of the kids playing with him drop around him. It wasn't quite a puppy pile, he was still a Shifter not from their pack, but they were touching him slightly, fingers here and there. Cherish had an arm draped over him. Spencer looked over to where Prentiss was to see O'Halloran and his wife sitting beside her. Spencer started to get up but Cherish pushed at him to stay. 

"It's fine, Doctor Reid. You enjoy yourself. We brought lunch for everyone to eat. After they have a rest for a few minutes. I had a helper as Agent Prentiss knows what you would like. She suggested a chicken salad with Poppyseed dressing and a sandwich."

"Sounds great, thank you." 

"Cherish how are you feeling today?" Sally O'Halloran asked. 

"I'm okay. I had fun playing, and it didn't hurt as much." Cherish looked at Prentiss and then at Spencer. "What kind of doctor are you?"

"Not that kind. I'm not a medical doctor. I hold doctorates in science."

"You are part of the people who are looking to find the people who killed Carlos, aren't you?" Cherish asked.

"Yes, I am. I promise to do my best to find who did it." 

Spencer found the missing piece of the puzzle to why he was so sure that it was small pack despite the issues that were at hand with the Shea pack while he was laying there with Cherish's arm thrown over his chest. He just needed more information. 

"Doctor Reid," Sally said as she walked over to stand over him and Cherish. "Why don't you take yours and Cherish's lunch back to her house that she was living in with Carlos? You can see the happy life they built."

There was something else that they wanted him to see and judge it on his own without their bias. 

"And Agent Prentiss?"

"I figured that she would do well talking to Carlos's friends here." Sally gave him a smile as she crouched down to help Cherish up to a standing position. "Divide and conquer is a good way to do things is it not?"

"Yes, it is."

"I can show you my room and the rooms where Danny and Sabrina live."

"Danny and Sabrina." Spencer looked at the teenager Sabrina as he stood up. 

"Danny is Sabrina's older brother, and they lost their mom and dad as well. Only it happened when they were on vacation together for their anniversary two years ago."

"They were robbed and killed in Mexico City," O'Halloran offered. The look on his face said that it was an accident which was good as Spencer really didn't want to start to have to try and get information on that crime. 

"I'm glad everyone is rallying to take care of you, Cherish."

"It's what pack means, taking care of those who need a little help." Cherish ran to the table and grabbed the bagged lunch that had her name on it before she moved to find the one with Spencer's name on it. "We can walk to my house." 

Spencer nodded and followed her, taking his lunch and holding her hand as they started to cross streets. The traffic was calm, unlike a lot of the city. Spencer remembered what the neighborhoods he had lived in a kid had been like, and even though when he was younger, they were in what was called pack areas, nothing was like this. He had never felt so safe in a pack area before. 

Cherish ran up the steps into the house and found that the door was unlocked, but then there was a neighbor in the house next door that was sitting on the porch knitting. Spencer nodded at her, and she narrowed her eyes. Spencer held up his FBI badge, and she nodded before going back to her knitting. It made Spencer feel a little bit upset that his childhood had never been like that. He looked around the room as Cherish ran to the kitchen. Spencer followed, looking into each room as he went. He found Cherish pouring them both glasses of water. She also had a glass of milk. 

"Do you like milk?"

"I do."

"Do you want a glass?" 

"Please." Spencer sat down in the chair that was opposite where Cherish had settled her lunch bag down before he got into her bag to settle her items out on the table. He did the same for his own, folding the bags down to be thrown away when he got up. Cherish carried over the two water glasses and then the two milk glasses before she sat down. She opened the wrapper on the food and lifted the bun to put a little pepper. It was a chicken salad sandwich. There was also a bag of chips, a cup of fruit, and what looked like potato salad with her lunch. Spencer had his chicken salad with dressing, a BLT, a bag of chips, a cup of fruit, and macaroni salad.

"Miss Sally runs a deli just a few blocks over. She makes all of the meals for the kids when we don't have school. Especially kids like me and Sabrina who don't have parents and our siblings take care...took care of us." 

"So Danny and Sabrina live here now?"

"They have lived here since their parents were killed. Pack living is what Carlos called it. I like it because even though everyone is older than me, they love me and they take care of me. I'm trying to be good for them as we are all grieving."

Spencer wondered at what kind of therapy Cherish was in because she was too forthcoming for a kid who had just lost their brother.

"Miss Josie is very nice, and she's been talking to me in person for years. I talk to her, and she helps when I am upset at Carlos for things. She came over and was the one who told me about Carlos. I'm going to miss him. I don't understand why and Miss Josie said that we might never know why someone killed him."

Spencer kept his mouth shut on that one. They really might never know why Carlos and the other two were killed, but Spencer had a feeling it was over pack things. Most of the people who had been killed so far had pack issues. Not all of them were with Shea, so that ruled out Shea convincing a smaller pack to do his dirty work, at least from what they knew at the moment. 

Cherish talked about her life with Carlos, probably having been coached because the BAU was coming to talk to her about her brother. It sounded like Carlos had tried his hardest to give her a really good life. He seemed like a really good brother. He had given up his life to give his sister the best life that she could. The pack helped him when he was going to college, but he had chosen to stay here instead of going to Carnegie Mellon for college. 

After lunch, Cherish settled herself on the couch with a book, and within a few minutes, she was asleep. Spencer didn't feel right leaving her along, so he wandered around the house. He saw the happy life that the Valdez's had before the parents died and then after before Carlos died. Spencer hoped that Danny and Sabrina did well by her or if not someone else stepped in. The pack was family, but Spencer knew that pack didn't always stay family. Even grief was bad for pack members, and sometimes everyone needed too much help to be able to help each other.

Carlos had an office to do the accounting work that he did for a few local businesses on the side while he worked in an office during the day as an accountant. He was rifling through the paperwork, ignoring the accounting stuff and separating it into each place so that it could be collected when it was time and given back for them to find someone else to do it. He did make a note on one about something they could do to help them save a little tax money and put his work cell phone and name on it. There was a recent bank statement that showed the money that was put in by both Carlos and Danny. They had a rather lovely nest egg which was good given that they were going to need a little help to stay afloat. 

Then he found at least one of the things that O'Halloran wanted him to find. Spencer pulled a pair of latex gloves from his pocket, pulling them free of the baggie he carried them in before slipping them on to pick up the stacks of letters. It was all the old school cut and paste method for warning someone. Spencer hoped prints or something could be found on it, but he didn't quite hold his breath. It was threats against Cherish or someone would make him pay, and there was a ransom demand that was more than Carlos and Danny put into their nest egg in a month, much less to make money payments like that. Spencer set those aside to be bagged up and evidence. He found more of them in a safe that was open with a note from Sally that she had been the one to ask Danny to open it before he left for work that day. 

The next thing that Spencer found had him calling Aaron. 

"Hotchner," Aaron said from the speaker on the phone. Spencer had set it down on the desk beside him so he could talk while using his hands to look at things.

"So, someone who lives in the house with Carlos Valdez, meaning either him or his best friend Danny, was looking into some things with the Shea pack. Have you ever got the actual paperwork that states what Danny does for the Mayor's office?"

"He's a private investigator who looks into pack things. He's been the one looking into the Shea pack and the problems with it."

"Well, I would say Danny is also looking into the threats made against Carlos for leaving the pack. All of them state that if he comes back, they won't kill Cherish, but if he wants to stay away, he will have to pay them money each month. It's more than they could pay according to the bank statements. We need a team here to secure information from the office. I put on gloves when I found the first threat, but before I had no gloves on so, my fingerprints are everywhere."

"I'll send a team to look over the area. What about the little sister?"

"She's asleep on the couch. I'm sure I can find someone to watch her while the house is carefully gone through."

"I'll make sure that the team knows to treat the area with respect. How much longer will you and Prentiss be?"

"I don't know. I'm not with her. I went with Cherish to her house. Don't worry, I clocked four people following us from O'Halloran's personal guard. I'm safe as I could be even with Prentiss around me. O'Halloran isn't going to let anything happen to Cherish. I think I'll save this stuff for the team and I'll let you know when Cherish is up from her nap, and we can walk back to the park. Sally O'Halloran, the pack mother as it seems, made lunches for all of us. I spent this morning playing soccer with a bunch of kids." 

"Sounds like you had a good day."

"It helped Cherish to get to trust me to let me walk around her house and to talk to me. She knows nothing of what else might be happening beyond her living here. She's not going to be good for any of that."

"I'm glad that means she can live her life without fear. I need to go as our next interview is on her way back. There is a lot going on, and I think that we can all agree; it's a small pack, we just need to understand the motive to be able to track them and arrest them."

Spencer made an agreeing noise and rang off. He heard Cherish starting to wake up, and he made his way back to her. 

"I think I'm ready to go back to the park, Spencer," Cherish said. She looked every bit of the seven-year-old girl that she was in that moment. Spencer held out his hands, and she rushed to him and let him pick her up. Spencer carried her outside, and they started to make their way to the park.

Prentiss was ready to go when Spencer got there, and they both said their goodbyes. Spencer made a promise to visit Cherish once before they left. 

Prentiss allowed Spencer to take the driver's seat, it wasn't fought over that much the other time they had been in Vegas for a case, Spencer was allowed to drive because he knew the area really well, even after so many years away. 

"So what did you find out?"

"A lot that I don't want to talk about until we are around the whole team. I need help bouncing some ideas around, and I don't think that Aaron is going to like it."

"Why?" Prentiss asked. 

Spencer didn't answer at first. He slowed to a stop as the light turned from green to yellow. The traffic was light even though they had just crossed over out of the O'Halloran pack area. He looked around as the cars passed in front of him. When those slowed down, he readied himself to go forward, making sure that the cross traffic was stopping first. 

"Because while I think that it is a small pack doing this, I think that whoever is leading that pack is taking their orders from Shea. There are too many that have been killed over the years in accidents, and too many of these people from the Lighthouse and O'Halloran packs are involved in the Shea pack in one way or another."

"So we need to look harder at the Shea pack?" Prentiss asked. 

"Yes." 

Spencer slowed down a little as they came to an intersection that they had a go on, but the side streets were stop signs, and not everyone actually stopped at them. He looked left, right, and then left again before speeding up. 

"REID!" Prentiss yelled as a truck in front of them, swerved over into their lane, heading right for them. Spencer slammed on the breaks and turned the SUV to try and get out of its path, but then he saw out of the corner of his eye another truck heading at them. It was going to t-bone them if he didn't correct what he was doing so Spencer turned the wheel more and took his foot off the brakes and sped up. Instead of hitting the SUV right at Spencer's door, the truck that was coming from the side hit the ass end and spun it. The one coming from the front rammed into the front end, and between the two, they smashed the SUV. The sudden jerking of the vehicle to a stop with a spin made Spencer's head bounce off of the door, and he knew nothing more. 


	10. Chapter 10

# Part 10

Aaron was kind of used to the sounds of Vegas. The race of police cars and rescue vehicles to wrecks, so he pushed those away from him each time. He and Dave were headed back from picking up dinner for the team to eat in their hotel rooms and talk without any ears listening in. Aaron wanted to have a frank discussion on something that was bothering him about the case in general. 

"Aaron," Dave said as he saw two squad cars peel out of the station as they got near it. 

Aaron's phone rang before he could say anything. 

"Hotchner," Aaron said as he felt his blood start to run cold. 

"Hotch, where are you?" JJ asked, just as Aaron clicked the phone over to the speaker. 

"Just getting to the station. Why?"

"Emergency responders just responded to a civilian calling in a kidnapping. A man and a woman were crashed into by two trucks and then taken from the SUV they were in. As soon as first responders got there, they noticed that the people had been stripped of anything that identified them and it was left behind, including guns and credentials."

"Prentiss and Reid," Aaron said as he looked at Dave. 

"Yes." 

Aaron didn't know what to do and that scared him. If it was the UnSubs they were after, it wasn't good, but there was also the chance that it didn't have anything to do with the case and was Shea trying to kill Spencer. Aaron looked at Dave again. 

"Dave, you have the lead on this. I can't...I can't be objective."

There was a round of mad honking and Aaron saw that it was Clemmons and he was waving at them. He saw JJ in the front seat and nodded. He waved at them to go. 

Aaron couldn't remember the drive to the point when he saw the smashed-up car. Morgan was already there. Morgan must have sent Clemmons to watch JJ when Prentiss had teamed up with Spencer to go and interview the family on the O'Halloran land. Aaron looked around at those who were closest to the crime scene, both those who were allowed where they were and those who were not. He saw O'Halloran himself with a woman beside him that looked pissed. He wasn't sure that he ever wanted to cross that woman. Given the hand on her shoulder, she had to be Sally O'Halloran. 

"Let's go and find them," Dave said as he opened his door to get out. 

Aaron got out, but he didn't go to the rammed SUV. He went right for O'Halloran. He smelled five Shifters that were not anyone on the police unit that was there and not O'Halloran. He assumed that they were the ones who had taken Spencer and Prentiss. The scents were all close, like siblings or even cousins. It was hard to tell with the smells of the city around, but he figured that it was a family, which fit the profile of the small pack they were hunting. It could also be a good countermeasure. 

"One of my pack saw it," O'Halloran whispered as soon as Aaron got close. Aaron looked around to see that there was a lot of people around. 

"Let me get your statement somewhere a little less crowded," Aaron said, and he held out his hand for Sally as he held up the police caution tape. He looked around as Sally and then O'Halloran crossed under. There were a lot of eyes on them. Aaron wondered how many were from the Shea pack and how many were just the standard people who were too curious for their own good. 

Aaron opened the door and let Sally and then O'Halloran slide into the middle seat before he got into the passenger side front seat. "So what's going on?"

"I have sent my pack member that saw it all back to the station. They are settled in with the Captain right now telling this and showing the video that they got of the vehicles leaving. His phone was off when he realized he needed to record, so he had to turn it on. He didn't get faces, but he's pretty sure he can pick them out of a lineup. To start at the beginning. He saw a truck barreling through an area that we have set at fifteen miles per hour. He followed them to where he watched as they rammed the back end of the SUV. He thought it was a drunk driver until he saw the second one. He was still too far to see the minute stuff, so he got as close as possible, which was when they had pulled Agents Reid and Prentiss from the SUV and were removing their phones and such. That is when he started his phone."

"So they were lying in wait for Spencer and Prentiss to leave your lands to take them. They didn't want to start a pack war on that. Federal agents taken on pack land would not have looked good for you. You would have declared them rogue and then gone after them. They are smart. Just as smart as this small pack, we have been chasing across the city."

"He got scents on at least two, near matching meaning family."

"I smell the same, and there are five scents that I smelled. You did well on getting him out of here and somewhere safe. I'll make sure that he's not fined or charged for fleeing the scene of a crime."

"The Captain already assured me of that when I called to let him know who exactly was coming. Thankfully, he has a good cover already. He runs a charity and made it seem like he was hitting the Captain up for money for it. The Captain does regularly give as the charity covers a lot of displaced people of all walks of life after a tragedy. We have a family of four we were doing a drive for as they lost their home to a fire started by a pair of teenage kids who were playing with fire. No one should bat an eye at him going in there, but he's not going to leave until the Captain has an escort for him to go home."

"That's good. I don't want to see him hurt. Pull your pack in, O'Halloran. Tell Lighthouse the same."

"I know that you guys are close but...how are you going to hunt for him. That would take someone who was saturated in his scent."

Aaron looked at O'Halloran and then at Sally. He wanted to trust them. He wanted to believe that they felt terrible for what they did. He wanted to believe that they were good people who had made the wrong decision. He really hoped that he didn't make a massive mistake with this. 

"I'd be able to find him in the middle of a wind storm on a rainy day."

"He talked about a partner, but...You've helped him accept what he is — someone he trusts more than anyone else in the world. I'll pull my pack back so that the scents are muddied. I'm sure that Lighthouse will do the same. It will still be hard to actually track him with the vehicle exhaust."

"I know." Aaron pulled out his phone and texted Garcia to get all the footage that she could. Aaron didn't know what to feel when she texted back that she had already tried, but the cameras in the area, all of them, from the police and state to small business were all messed up. That spoke to a lot of intelligence to mess them all up and not mess up other electronics. Aaron forwarded that to the rest of the team. 

"The impact knocked them both out, which is no small feat. So we can't rely on them leaving us a trail. If they are in a car, it would be hard for me to track, but I might be able to. What vehicle did the pack load them into?"

"The trucks used to ram them."

"So, modified trucks that could take out our SUV but still be able to run." 

"I have a young man I took into the pack a few years ago. He was running with hoodlums after he was kicked out of the Shea pack. Running with a crowd that boosted cars to take to chop shops. I'll talk to him to see if he knows who in the city can do that kind of work and quickly."

"I agree that this whole case wasn't set up to bring Reid here. Shea was shocked as hell that he was here. Shea boasted to the pack that he had killed Reid. Yet, his inner circle knew that he hadn't given how they were not shocked that he was blaming Reid for this. So it was a happy accident."

"You think that Shea is behind this but what about those in his pack? Why would he kill them?"

"His pack is in shambles. He's killed or threatened a lot of those that have left. He probably killed those in his pack who were going to leave. Vicky Slater was going to leave as soon as Janine's family was safe. We are digging deeper and deeper into it all and finding that everything in some way shape or form goes back to Shea. That's the other reason I would like your two packs to be on lockdown. If the business can't be closed or they can't leave their shift, make sure they are not alone." 

"We will. I've made sure that Cherish isn't alone and that she doesn't know about Doctor Reid," Sally said. 

"That's the Valdez girl? Who bonded with Reid?" Aaron asked. He knew that Spencer would be upset if she were upset about him. 

"Yes."

"Good. Please do keep her contained on that. Spencer would be upset if she were worried about him."

"We will." 

"I'll keep you informed. I have your cell phone number given to me by the Captain. I have Lighthouse's as well, but I didn't think a lockdown order from me would go over very well given everything that is going on." Aaron opened his door and got out, running around to open up Sally's door. She gave him a smile as she exited the SUV. Aaron waited for both of them to get beyond the tape before he turned to the SUV. He planned on seeing and smelling what he could before he started to track Spencer through the city. 

The smell of blood was the first thing that he smelled as he got close. There was blood on the driver's side door. Aaron knew it was Spencer's before he even got a good sniff of it. Spencer almost always drove when it was him and anyone but Aaron driving in Vegas. Spencer knew the streets; he knew the traffic. Aaron saw where Spencer's head had hit the side of the door; it was probably what knocked him out. What O'Halloran said was that Spencer and Prentiss had been pulled out of the SUV, meaning they had both been out. Aaron couldn't see either of them giving up and being allowed to be taken without. The smell of Spencer when he was scared wasn't in the SUV. 

Aaron could see Spencer driving. He had been trained in combat driving though Morgan didn't know that. Spencer had not wanted to learn from him. Spencer was still a little in awe after watching the SWAT teams practice one day at Quantico. Spencer had come back into Aaron's office and stared at him for ten minutes before Aaron had finally decided that he couldn't wait for Spencer to speak up. Aaron had been more than amused that night recounting some stories for Spencer. 

"This was a planned extraction," Morgan said.

"I agree. It was detailed out to where exactly to do it as well. There was light traffic, according to Garcia in the moments that led up to it. It was a coordinated effort, and that is going to bite them in the ass. O'Halloran is checking into someone who could have modded the trucks to make them not break down after ramming the SUV. It's going to be easy to track a five-person pack that has trucks like that."

"Five?" Morgan asked.

"Eye witness is back at the station with the Captain giving a statement, for safety."

"Fuck. This is going to become a political mess." 

"Nope, it's going to be a slaughter. They took my mate, Morgan and I will kill this fucking city to get him back."

Morgan just looked at Aaron with shock on his face. Aaron knew that he had revealed more than he should have without asking Spencer how deep he wanted the team into their relationship, but he was hanging on by a thread. As soon as he had what he needed, he was going to go on a hunt, and he was going to demand that Morgan do it with him. He didn't want to be alone, and he didn't trust anyone else in the city to have his back. There was also the fact that it wasn't like any of the city slickers would know what the fuck to do with a massive Grizzly Bear. 

The scent of Clemmons was close, and Aaron turned to see that Dave and JJ were with him. Someone would need to stay with them in human form to relay where they were going. Aaron wanted JJ and Dave back at the station to make sure that things were going smooth with everything else. 

"Clemmons, you ever been used to track a Shifter through a city while on a hunt?"

"Yes, we have an officer that changes into a Siberian Husky that we use for tracking. She makes man hunts fun."

"Good. I'm going to call your Captain and then I will be hunting Spencer with Morgan's help."

"A wolf and a bear? Shit." Clemmons looked a little too excited for that, but Aaron understood that he was still so enamored with Shifters, even if he wasn't one.

It was an hour before the cops could get out in force to make sure that the path that Aaron and Morgan were taking wouldn't have civilians on it. The burning rubber from the tracks left by the trucks as they fled the area was a good starting point. From there, it was just going to be tracking the scent of the vehicles. One of which was leaking a strange mix of gasoline, oil, and transmission fluid. It was going to be easy to track as long as they didn't double back on themselves that much. 

Morgan was the first to shift. Aaron followed seconds later. Morgan would slow Aaron down, but he would rather have that than to be alone when he confronted the people who took Spencer. Aaron trotted over to where the mixture was the strongest, it made him want to turn his nose away, but he needed to keep that smell in his nose to be able to track it. He watched as Clemmons grabbed a rag and wiped up the mess some and sealed it into a bag. It would be good to refresh his nose without coming back to this spot. 

Aaron settled himself down into the baser part of his mind. The wolf that liked to get out and run and was confined most of the time. He sniffed the scent he needed again and the trace of it on the air was directly in the path that he knew he needed to go. Aaron kept his pace slow enough to where Morgan wasn't going to wear himself out but fast enough that he didn't feel like he was too slow to find Spencer. 

While Spencer was not awake, he was vulnerable. There was no telling what could have been done to him as soon as they got him where they were taking him. That they had not killed him and Prentiss right where they were meant that they wanted at least Spencer alive and Prentiss was a good method of them getting him to do what they wanted him to do. It was going to backfire, and Aaron knew it. Prentiss wouldn't allow it, and Spencer wouldn't fall for it. There was no way they were ever going to make either of them think that they were going to get out of there alive. It had taken Spencer a little bit to get over the whole thing with the compound from years before where Prentiss had been beaten because of them getting caught and Prentiss protecting him. Intellectually, Spencer knew that someone had to fess up so the other could easily do what Spencer did and they had both done their parts. Spencer was not and would never be the typical FBI agent. It would have been harder to sell him as the agent and Prentiss didn't have the skills needed to get in as deep as Spencer had got before the end. 

Aaron didn't want Spencer to be where he was, but he was with Prentiss, and those two understood each other well. The only thing that Aaron worried about was that after everything that had gone on and how much Prentiss knew Aaron loved Spencer and Spencer loved Aaron, she might give up her life to protect him. Aaron wasn't sure what Spencer would do in that case. It could very well break him after everything else never had. 

"Hotch?" Clemmons called out as Aaron stopped at a corner that he had passed two times already. The second time he thought he had followed a weak trail, but this time he knew he had not. They were doubling back and trying to throw them off. They knew the truck was leaking, but only one of them. 

Aaron growled and let his tail whip back and forth in his anger. Aaron shifted back quickly and looked at Clemmons, Morgan was just seconds behind him. 

"They are laying false trails. The trucks had to have split up, and the one that has the leaks is not where we are going to find my missing team members. We need to regroup and think."

"I have a report of a wolf howling," a voice said from behind. Aaron turned around to look at the man who was saying it. He seemed very unsure of himself as he said it.

"And?" Aaron asked.

"It's thirty-two blocks over to the west. It was reported by a human who thinks that someone has a wolf pinned in an abandoned warehouse." 

Aaron shifted and took off that way. He knew he would be able to hear Spencer if it was him when he got closer. He heard Morgan's lumbering run behind, the thud of his weight. He slowed down when he could, so that Morgan could catch up and stay with him. Morgan wasn't made for running like Aaron was, but he was good at keeping up when he had to. Aaron counted the blocks in his head as he hit intersections. He heard the police cars that were making sure no civilians were in the way. He also knew one other thing; this warehouse was on the edge of Shea pack lands. Too close to Shea's control for him not to have it there. 

At two blocks, Aaron smelled it, old as hell blood, Spencer's blood. He put on a burst of speed, not caring about Morgan anymore. At one block, he smelled new blood. At the edge of the fence, he smelled even newer scents, like the smell of freshly ripped up bodies. There was no wolf howl any more, though.


	11. Chapter 11

# Part 11

Spencer wasn't sure what woke him up first, the smell of fox Shifters all around him or the incessant talking from one of the men who was there right near his cage. Still, he didn't move to let them know that he was awake. He did know that he had shifted while he had been knocked out. He hadn't been still knocked out from the wreck. He had woken up from the wreckage while still in the truck and had been knocked out with chloroform. That had been a shock that it had been used, but then the countermeasures were used to wipe information like that.

"Your father is the one that told you to take them. They are fucking Federal Agents!" one of the men yelled. 

Spencer counted six heartbeats other than Prentiss's, who was awake as well. Spencer knew her heartbeat when she was awake, and when she was asleep. This was close to asleep, but that was just her resting heart rate. Despite the fact that the two of them were close, and it felt like in cages, they were both calm. Spencer wasn't shocked that she was calm. Prentiss had been in worse situations than this. 

"And they are going to die. These are the last ones. After this, we don't have anyone else on the list to kill. We've taken care of the threat to the pack, and then we can move on and become full members of the pack again."

"You mean that you can again; we never were."

"And now you are going to be an enforcer, higher than most ever get in a pack. You'll be a God among heathens." 

Spencer tried to fits the voices together. It was just the two of them talking, the other four were standing still according to his ears, but their hearts were moving faster than usual. He heard the scrape of metal on a plate and figured out that they were eating. Spencer was glad that his stomach didn't growl. Spencer probably wouldn't be hungry for a little while. He tried to listen to what was outside of where they were, but he heard nothing that was going to help. 

The smell of the place they were in was full of dust. That meant they were in an area that wasn't used a lot. The air smelled fresh but underneath that was blood. A lot of blood and all of it recent. Not recent like fresh but recent like the killings that had happened. This was the pack that the team was hunting. These men were the UnSubs. It was interesting as they didn't sound that criminally sophisticated at all. 

"I'd rather be an enforcer than trying to beg for scraps like we have been. No pack wants us," a new voice said from over where the other four were. 

Spencer wondered if all of them knew that the packs would take them if they were not insane. Though it seemed these guys were all insane, Shifters who lived for the fight, for the death. He did not care about them, only getting him and Prentiss out. 

"It's time to swap," the main voice said, and he moved around, the scent of him wafting toward Spencer. 

Spencer knew that family smell; he was a kid of Shea or at least a very close family relative. Spencer wouldn't put it past Shea to actually use a family member like that. His body would never be found though that it would link back to him too much. Shea was smarter than Spencer thought he was. He was not nearly as smart as he thought he was, but he was close. The team would find them, Aaron would not rest until he was found, but Spencer didn't want to be found. He wanted to rescue himself, work with Prentiss to get them out as soon as possible.

"It's my turn," a voice said, and he sounded young, too young to have done anything like this.

"Remember, don't touch her. I don't care what you did to the others, but you don't touch her, do you hear me!" the Shea man said. 

There was grumbling from the man who had spoken up that it was his turn and then the sound of a chair scraping. Spencer heard all of them moving, one coming closer to the cages they were in and then the rest leaving the area all the way, going outside with a slam of a door. The sound of a chair scraping again and then a body thudding down into the chair said that the watcher was close to them but not too close. A few seconds later and the sound of muffled music filled the area. The man was wearing headphones. Spencer opened his eyes and blinked until they adjusted to the light around them. 

Prentiss was beside him doing the same thing. They were both in the same cage. Prentiss sat up first, going slow, her eyes locked on the man who was supposed to be watching them. It was a good thing that the man was facing away from them. Spencer gave Prentiss a smile, and Prentiss nodded back that she was fine. Prentiss then pointed at the cage. 

Spencer turned to look at the cage, and he saw what Prentiss was seeing. The bars were big enough for her to slip through in Shifter form. Spencer grinned at her and then he shifted back into human form. Spencer patted down his pants and smiled before reaching into his pocket and holding up a few bits of things, that could work as a lock pick set. He laid them down near the door of the cage. 

"What's the plan?" Prentiss whispered.

"You shift, get out, change back, and unlock the door. I'll shift back into wolf form, and then we get the hell out of here," Spencer said. It was a simple plan, but sometimes those were the best as they allowed for a lot of changes. Spencer waited for her nod before he shifted back to wolf form. He turned toward the door and kept an eye out for anyone else coming in as well as an ear. He figured they were running the perimeter. 

Prentiss shifted smoothly and slipped out between the bars before she shifted back. She made quick work of the lock. Spencer had made sure that the team could at least attempt to pick a lock on nearly everything that they had ever got locked in with. It had made it easy to get victims out sometimes. Spencer watched as she carefully pulled the lock off the door and set it down. She shifted back into Bobcat form and quickly made her way out of the way. Spencer would be the one to open the door so that if it did make noise, he would already be slipping out of it. The sound of a door opening close to them had Spencer slipping out of the cage. Most of the doorways were blocked, Spencer confirmed that as he looked around again. The cage door hadn't made a noise, and the person supposed to be watching them was still mostly faced away from them. Spencer moved quickly and found that the rest of the pack was coming back in and they were all in human form.

Spencer looked at Prentiss. The pack was between them and the door that they knew would allow them out. It wasn't going to be long before the pack noticed that they were not in their cage. He waited to see when they were going to be noticed to not be in their cages. 

"So how can we not confirm what kind of Shifter the bitch is?" a voice asked.

"FBI files are protected, and according to Ethan no one has mentioned what she is in the station," the Shea man said. 

"Umm, Dom?" a new voice called out. 

Spencer looked at them and saw that someone was pointing at the empty cage. Spencer waited until someone screamed before he howled. There was no way of hiding that they had escaped. Prentiss followed an outcry of her own. The man who should have been watching them jumped up from his seat, and Spencer knew him. Spencer knew all of the men, especially Dominic Shea, the nephew of Jake Shea and the rumored illegitimate son of him that his parents had forced his brother to take in. Jon Shea had been killed not long after Dom had turned eleven and taken in by his uncle. It wasn't a shock that he would turn out just as bad as his uncle or father, whoever he was. Spencer was also not shocked that the man would use him like he was doing. Shea found no one worth not using. It was strange for a Shifter, but it wasn't that strange in the scope of humanity. 

Letting out another howl that was worth the wolf that he was, Spencer lunged as the man who was supposed to be watching them spun around and tried to kick at them. Spencer dodged the kick and grabbed the leg. It was mostly bone, but even if there wasn't a lot of fat, there were muscles and nerves. He started to move his head like Morgan and Aaron had taught him, shredding and ripping, wounding the man as Prentiss used the chair he had been in to jump to his head and slash her sharp as hell claws over his face. 

The other five members of the pack shifted in seconds and were running at them. Foxes were no match for them, and the stupid idiots didn't care. Spencer didn't care about that, though; it was their lives or theirs. They had no backup and were in an unknown area with who knew how many enemies between them and freedom. Spencer wasn't going to take the chance of trying to save their lives and not escape than just to incapacitate them in any way shape or form and get the hell out of there. 

Prentiss went down with the man she had slashed in the face. She turned him and lunged at the first fox that got close, taking him down in a tumble. They rolled, and Spencer focused on the other four that were gaining ground. He wasn't sure which one was Shea, but he was going to make sure to take him out first. Spencer ducked the first one that jumped at him and the second behind wasn't expecting it. Spencer grabbed the fox by the throat and flung him, keeping the skin in his teeth there and the rest of the body going another direction. He didn't even check to make sure that the fox was dead, he could check that after. Spencer got to his feet and stayed steady on them keeping himself between something at his back and the four foxes left in front of him. He heard a spitting noise and glanced to see that the Shifter that they had both attacked was on his feet and was shifted to fox form. He was trying to attack Prentiss and failing but keeping her on her toes. 

Spencer hadn't fought in his form that much yet so he knew that he was a hindrance to Prentiss, at least in her eyes. Spencer could hold his own at least some in wolf form. He and Aaron had done a little bit of training in that aspect. There was still that slight fear of Shifters for Spencer and being vulnerable like that to the other two on the team wasn't something that he could do at the moment. Spencer wasn't sure what was going to happen, so he darted around the foxes to get into a clear area. He didn't want to give one of them a chance to jump up onto the top of the cage and jump onto his back. Clear areas were better. Spencer kept going until he put the wall to his back. Spencer watched as Prentiss gained her feet and moved a reasonable distance away in the other direction. He knew that spreading them apart made it harder for them to watch each other's backs. It wasn't going to be long before Prentiss killed the fox she was fighting. 

The smallest fox jumped at Spencer, trying to get his neck but Spencer hunkered down, and then when he felt the weight of it on his back he rose up and tossed it off before he lunged at the closest fox. It yipped and darted back. Spencer still wasn't sure which one was Shea, but he was going to find out. Shea would get away to where he could smell him instead of the mass of foxes that he was smelling at the moment. Spencer waited until another came at him, lower this time to where Spencer couldn't do the same. Spencer lunged, though, and grabbed it's hind leg, jerking it and then running, pulling the fox with him. When he was close to a wall, he spun his whole body. The crack of the body was loud in the room, and it drove the last three foxes that Spencer was facing go nuts. The body didn't even move as it landed on the floor. 

One took off at Spencer in a frenzy, and it was enough to make him really stupid but not stupid enough that Spencer couldn't catch him. Spencer felt the teeth close on him, and he got loose quickly. The fox was too stupid to get a hold of him in a good place that it could hold on. Spencer heard a death rattle and spared a glance to see that the fox Prentiss had been fighting was dead with what looked like its lungs punctured by Prentiss's claws, given the shredding that was visible on its body. 

Prentiss entered the fray, landing on the back of the fox that was trying to get to Spencer. It growled at her when she rolled off of it; claw marks down it's back. Spencer turned to face the two that were left for him. He looked them over and figured out which way the smell of Shea was coming from. It was the one on his left. So he focused on the one on the right as the one that was going to die first. 

Shea seemed okay with that as he hung back while the young and stupid fox tried to get behind Spencer. Spencer lunged forward as the fox tried to dart to the side. He didn't even go for anything that was fancy. He just closed his teeth around the fox's neck from the front and closed down before he jerked backward. The fox didn't have a chance as his throat was ripped out. 

Then it was just Shea and Spencer as he heard the yip and then nothing from the one that Prentiss was fighting. She stayed back, not going toward Spencer and Shea at all. Spencer could see the fear in Shea's eyes. Dom was just as much of a coward as his father or uncle or whoever he was. Spencer watched as Shea tried to figure out where he could go to escape. He darted one way, and Spencer cut him off, growling the whole time. The fox back stepped out of the range of Spencer's lunges, and he let him. There were new scents in the air, and Spencer knew them, but his brain didn't like either of them intruding where they didn't belong. More scents followed as well, and Spencer growled. The fox cowered down to the ground like it was going to submit, but Spencer knew that Shea would never do that. 

Dom Shea would do anything to get the favor of the man that he looked up to most, including killing anyone that Jake Shea told him to. It was insane that anyone would be like that Spencer had seen and tracked down enough of them through the years to believe it all. Shea started to look worried as the other wolf entered the room, followed by a Grizzly bear. Then came in the human cops. The sounds of weapons being freed and the safeties being flicked off had Shea looking at Spencer. Shea was a Shifter, and he was one of the ones that would rather die at the hands of another Shifter than to be allowed to be taken or killed by a bullet.

Spencer wasn't shocked when the fox lunged at him. He didn't even hesitate as the fox went for his throat. Spencer knocked him to the floor and looked at Prentiss. Spencer might let him have the death that he wanted, by one of his kind, but he wasn't going to let it be the exact way that he wanted. Shea rolled though, between Prentiss's body and the floor before he went back for Spencer. Shea wasn't even trying to fight with finesse anymore. He was a crazed creature that wasn't going to stop until it was dead. So Spencer put him down like that, on his back with his throat bared. Spencer lunged forward and ripped at Shea's throat, but he didn't tear it out and give him a quick death. He just let him slowly bleed out as he limped over to Aaron. He settled onto his side and curled into a ball and tried to get rid of the pain just with his thoughts. 

The pain in the leg that the fox had got a hold of him on was significant enough that he was in a lot of pain; it wasn't going to go away on its own. He was in enough pain that he didn't want to shift back to human form to get out of there. He would have to get a little bit of treatment, including a little bit of drugs before he would be able to change to human form. Locals had been developed for that kind of thing so that Shifters could get into better forms to be treated. 

"Shit," a voice said. 

Spencer looked up to see that it was the Captain. He was looking around at the six dead foxes as well as the wolf and Bobcat covered in blood. 

"Was this?" another asked.

Spencer felt Aaron shifting from wolf form to Human. He felt the hands settle into his fur, despite the blood everywhere on him. 

"Spencer, hey, look at me." Aaron's hands were gentle as he lifted Spencer's head up to where he could look him in the eyes. "Where are you in pain?"

Spencer stretched out his bad leg but tucked it back in as one of the officers moved closer. 

"Back off," Morgan said. 

"Sorry," the officer said, and he did. 

"I need a medkit for a Shifter," Aaron said. 

"You got it," Prentiss said.

"How are you, Prentiss?"

"I'm fine. They focused on Reid, but I would say that other than his leg all of that is from them. He ripped the throats out of three and killed another by tossing him into the wall. I've never seen him fight like that before."

"It's what's called SWAT fighting," Aaron said. He curled his fingers into the skin under Spencer's chin to dig his fingers into the skin there. It felt damned good. "I've been training him in it. I was in Seattle when they had a huge pack of FBI agents who were all in SWAT. We used to fight bare-knuckle and swapped back and forth during the fighting." 

Prentiss took a few minutes to get back into the room; the time passed pretty quick for Spencer. He knew that Aaron's hands scratching over his body was more for seeing how injured he was than to actually touch him, but it felt damned good. Spencer wasn't going to escape a trip to the ER he knew that, but he wanted to go in as a Human and not a Shifter. Aaron's hands were gentle as they cleaned off his wound on his leg, and when he was sure of how spread it was, he used a needle to give him a little bit of a local. Aaron was trained in first aid for Shifters, had gone through the training in SWAT and kept it up for the BAU. Spencer was really glad of that because he didn't want anyone else to touch him. 

The change from wolf to Human was easy when the pain started to go away. His clothes were covered in blood, mostly other people's. Aaron was there looking at his wound now that he was Human. His face was impassive, but Spencer knew that he was worried about it. It was jagged and was going to take a little bit to heal up. 

"Why did they take you?"

"They weren't exactly forthcoming," Spencer said. He hissed as there was an uncomfortable tug as Aaron cleaned the wounds. It was rough and felt weird. He knew though that he would be fine with a little bit of time and some good bandages. Aaron slathered a cream that was made for Shifters to help with horribly dirty mouths as well as bleeding using a lot of natural medicines and such in it. Aaron stocked it for the team in the kits they carried with them. 

"JJ," Aaron said. He looked up at JJ, and Spencer looked over at her. She was looking at Spencer with wide eyes, but she didn't look scared, more worried. Spencer held out a hand to him. "Keep him down as I talk about this with the Captain."

"Sure." 

Spencer waited for JJ to settle where she could lay his head in her lap. Her fingers started to comb through his hair. She didn't seem to mind the blood that was all over him. 

"You did good," JJ said with a smile on her face. She looked down at where Aaron was wrapping Spencer's shredded leg. It looked horrible, but Aaron was making sure that he was in good health before he went to talk with the Captain.

"We are going to have this on lockdown," the Captain said as he walked over to them. He looked down at Spencer. "How are you doing Agent Reid?"

"I'm doing good. The local is working well, and I'll get it taken care of as soon as Hotch decides that I can leave."

"That's good. Now, for now, I want to make sure that nothing of this gets out to the packs until we understand what happened here."

"There was a rumor when I was younger that Jake Shea had a bastard child and it was given to his brother to raise and then his brother was killed, so he raised the kid on his own but never claimed him as his son but stayed as his nephew." 

Aaron looked at Spencer with a sharp look on his face. 

"I forgot about it until I smelled Shea on the last fox that I killed. He's a relation of some kind."

"Shea's too smart to react to this unless something happens." 

"Let Shea back into the station. Get him in there and let him see me alive and fine and I'm sure that he'll break." 

"That does have merit. We can make sure it's recorded from all angles."

"The Shea pack needs to be broken down, and the members who make it out without a single infraction that sticks them in jail need to be split up between other houses. I'm sure that once the leaders are taken down, the rest will crumble or just gladly leave."

"It's one of the most corrupt packs that I have ever seen," Aaron said. He stood up, giving Spencer a smile before he turned to follow the Captain so they could talk. 

"Hey, JJ," Spencer said a smile up at JJ.

"Yeah?"

"Wake me when it's time to leave, yeah?" 

"Sure." JJ smiled at Spencer and kissed her thumb before pressing it to Spencer's forehead. 

Spencer let his eyes close, and he let himself fall asleep. 


	12. Chapter 12

# Part 12

Aaron thought that Spencer and the Captain were wrong. After taking Spencer to the ER, they had come back to the station house to work on the case file, something that Aaron had them do rarely before leaving but Aaron wanted it given to Strauss over secure email as well as delivered to the Captain to be able to work on getting the Sheas disbanded. If there had been another Reid to take over, Aaron knew that it was the way that it would have gone but Spencer was the only one, and he wasn't going to be staying in Vegas. Aaron wasn't sure that Spencer wanted to visit Vegas that much at all. Aaron knew that he would want to see his mother but it was on the edges of Vegas, and he wouldn't have to see many Shifters at all. 

Ethan, the man who had been the Shea helper, had been pacing for an hour after the Captain kept on telling him that they were working the case and needed to get information figured out before they shared it. Aaron had told him the same thing several times. The man was near blowing, and Aaron was pretty sure that he was going to do it soon. 

After another half an hour, Jake Shea entered the bullpen. Aaron watched him out of the corner of his eye. Spencer was alone in the conference room while the rest of the team was scattered around talking to officers. Spencer was looking at the board like he was trying to figure something out, but Aaron knew that he was working through a book in his head. 

"YOU!" Shea yelled, and it caught the attention of every single person in the station. The Captain left his office but didn't get close to where Spencer and Shea were alone. Aaron was the closest, and he was just waiting for Shea to do something to make Aaron need to step in. He didn't like Spencer being alone with him, but there was nothing that he could do about that as Spencer was right that there was a better chance of Shea doing something monumentally stupid was having him think he was alone. There was a new sign on the door to the conference room that said that there were recording devices in use across the whole of the station outside of the bathrooms. The Captain had made those up quickly so that the camera's recordings couldn't be thrown out, even though only an idiot would think that everything that happened inside of a police station wasn't recorded in the day and age of there being a lot of really bad cops doing idiotic shit. 

"Yes?" Spencer asked turning to look at Shea. For now, his hurt leg was protected by being under the other on the table where he was sitting with his legs crossed. 

Shea went right up to Spencer's face and stood there, staring at him. Spencer didn't even flinch at all. He just at Shea with a disinterested look on his face. 

"Why the fuck are you still here?"

"The case isn't done yet. We will be here until it's done."

Shea stopped and looked at Spencer for a second before he looked out into the bullpen to see that the team was all talking to officers. It was random words with no meaning. They were all good at playing this kind of thing. While no one on the team ever really went undercover, there were short little things that were used to trick UnSubs, so everyone had a little training on undercover work. Spencer had taken a few more classes than the rest of the team, near combined. He was good, but he liked the classes to learn about psychology and other things like that more than actually being interested in doing undercover work. Spencer was good at it, he had learned how to be good at it. 

"Then how come Ethan hasn't been given any updates?"

"We don't have any that we feel are good to be released at the moment."

"These are my people being killed. I demand to know everything that you know at this moment, and I'll make sure that you give it to me."

"I have no permission to release any information to you, Shea."

"You will call me Sir!" Shea demanded, getting even closer to Spencer's face. 

Aaron didn't move as he was afraid that he would run to Spencer. He did look at the Captain and shook his head. 

"Did you hear me you fucking wolf?" Shea demanded, and his hand shot out to grab at Spencer's leg. It went right for his damaged skin and gripped hard. 

Spencer hissed but didn't do anything else. Shea had given himself up that he knew something that he shouldn't. 

The phone rang at the desk that Aaron was sitting at and he answered it. 

"Hotchner," Aaron said. 

"Hotch, Sir. The video feeds from the warehouse can be traced to a laptop that has horrible security and not a lot of anything on it except for the copies of the deaths. Every single one. The other thing is that it's there, right now. I would say in the public parking lot." It was Sofia as Garcia was taking a nap. Aaron had been told that just before this whole thing has started. 

"Text Morgan and have him find it."

"Oh, Clemmons is already searching for it. We even have a search warrant to search the vehicle it's in. The Captain has been busy for me. I was just shocked when it showed up there. I was about to send Clemmons out to look for it."

"Good. Good." 

Clemmons entered the station with a laptop bag in his hand. Shea wasn't paying attention. He was more interested in trying to intimidate Spencer, which wasn't happening.

"Shit," Aaron said as he stood up as he figured out why Shea had been so scared of Spencer since he had thrown him out of the pack. Alphas were not used to run packs anymore because just become someone was strong didn't mean they were a good leader, so many packs had been lead to near death because of leaders who were not good at leading and were only good at fighting. So the packs across the world had slowly changed if they want to be taken seriously. There were still fights to be the leader, but the pack could step in and stop the fight if they wanted the original leader. 

Spencer was an Alpha in all the ways that mattered. He would never try and take their pack from Aaron, but he was strong enough to lead if Aaron was taken out. The others would follow him. Aaron figured that it was what Shea saw when he had been a child, a person that might have tried to take the pack back from him. There was one thing that Aaron knew that Shea didn't know about Spencer and it was something that Shea should have known before throwing out Spencer. Spencer was never going to search for the power that leading a pack gave. He would rather stay in the shadows. Shea should have never thrown him out, and Spencer never would have done a damned thing against him. Aaron couldn't see Spencer doing anything other than what he had done. He would have gone to Caltech, he would have gone to the BAU. Spencer was never going to stay in Vegas. He was never going to be content in a classroom teaching, and it was about the only thing that Spencer probably could have done in Vegas. He was destined to be where he was. Aaron couldn't believe anything else. Spencer was his mate, and he was never going to be a simple person teaching in Vegas. 

"Why would you think that we are keeping anything from you?" Spencer asked as he unfolded himself, breaking Shea's hold on his leg. He scooted off of the table and kept his eyes locked with Shea before he made the man take a step back. If the pack saw this, Shea probably wouldn't last a day.

"I heard that the group who was killing my people was found and they are dead. I demand to know what is going on."

"A pack took Agent Prentiss and me hostage. They didn't get a chance to do anything with us as we escaped and killed them when they attacked us. All of them are dead, and they are not coming back. The ME is doing DNA on them to find the family to tell them. What do you know of that?"

"Just a rumor. Was one of the Dom?"

"Who?" Spencer asked. 

"Dominic, my nephew. He's been missing along with a few of his friends after I cast them out for attacking the Lighthouses three years ago."

"That's why they were doing it?" Spencer asked. 

It was all too neat and tidy. Though with the cameras feeding back to Shea's laptop, found in his car, it was going to be hard for him to try and get out of what he was doing. It was sick that he would use someone to kill those that he wanted dead and leave them to take all of the blame.

"What?"

"Trying to curry favor with the leader of their former pack to get back in? Well, Shea, you made a few mistakes on that, and one was letting any of them know what was going on. Though that could have been Dom on his own. He was never good at keeping things a secret. I remember that from school. He's a stupid young man who would do anything to prove to his father that he was worth it." 

"He's not my son. He's my nephew."

"I was here for it, Jake," Spencer said. He grinned at Shea. "I was here for it. I was the one who saw the way your family reacted to it. There was a rumor that you raped the woman who bore the child. You said that you were in a frenzy. You didn't know what you were doing. I know what kind of man you are, Jake Shea. You sacrificed your own damned son to keep your pack from leaving. To push them to fear you more. Leadership doesn't mean fear, you piece of shit. We are not base creatures who follow power, we are Shifters, proud and wonderful. You debase yourself, and the name of what you are by being a little piece of shared shit who can't even kill."

"You know nothing of me. NOTHING!" Shea shoved Spencer, and he stumbled back into the table, but Spencer stayed on his feet and grinned at Shea. 

Aaron was stuck where he was. He couldn't even think about moving forward, or he would piss Spencer off. Aaron didn't want to be in the doghouse at the moment. 

"I know everything about weak-willed men like you. Your pack sought help from the Reid pack at the behest of your great grandfather. Your father hated that and made you into the thing that you are who feels that just because your family used to rule a medium pack that, you deserved anything at all. Leaders don't deserve a damned thing they prove that they are leaders. They prove that they can take care of their pack. Your grandfather knew that the Sheas were getting weak and he sought out to make sure that your pack wasn't ripped to shreds by another pack. You were weak then, and you are weaker now because you think that the world should bow down on their knees and let you do what you want."

"Dom should have been my replacement! He would have stepped in as my son as soon as he proved that he was worth it by killing anyone who thought they could undermine me and my rule of this pack!"

Spencer grinned. He said nothing else, just grinned at the man who had fucked up so much. 

"Clemmons," Spencer called out a few minutes later. 

Aaron watched as Clemmons came into the room with handcuffs and grabbed Shea and started to read him his rights.

"Also you should know that we have wonderful hackers. Two hours ago I got approval for those hackers to rip apart the computers that you own. The governor signed it himself. You are fucked, Shea, and you are going to live to see your pack pieced off to the other packs. Lighthouse and O'Halloran have already stepped up. You think you are smart, but you forget that I've always been smarter. The Reid's have always been smarter."

"Then why did your father get rid of you?"

"Because my father was not smart enough for the family. He's a good lawyer, but he saw my intelligence as a weakness."

"He's smart enough," Shea said as he ought the cuffs on his hands. 

"No, he's not. He was stupid enough to let you use him. He's going to jail, Shea. We found out enough about his workings to figure out that he was feeding you information that he was getting from other lawyer friends who trusted him. He's a snake. He doesn't even deserve the ranking of a fox as a Shifter. He's a snake who betrayed his people for money."

Aaron hadn't known that. He knew about the warrants to get into the computers of Shea without him knowing. They had caught a few emails to people, and the cancer that was Shea had his hands in so many places across the city. It was going to be hellish in the city for months as the packs tried to figure everything out.

"You are single-handedly responsible for the death of your pack, Shea. You chose to do what you did and fucked the whole thing up. You are the reason that your pack will never be allowed to lead again. Your little sister's kids will never be allowed to run a pack. They are black marked."

"You fucking bastard!" Shea lunged at Spencer, but he raised up his good leg and shoved at Shea pushing him backward off of him and making Shea hit the floor. Spencer walked over to him and looked down at him. Clemmons didn't, even more, to help Shea right himself on the floor. 

"I'm not the bastard, Shea. I'm the one that made sure your kind can't hurt anyone else. You've ruined lives, and why? So you didn't have to give up power? That means you don't deserve power at all. You don't deserve a damned thing. Once the full scope of your crimes comes out when your computers are gone through with a fine-toothed comb, I'm going to make sure you are put to death." Spencer turned away from him and walked out of the room, letting Clemmons take care of Shea. Spencer went right for Aaron settling down on the desk beside him and sighing. "I want to go and see mom."

"Well, we were just waiting for Shea so we can go at any point that you want." Aaron settled into his chair and pulled Spencer's leg up into his lap before he rolled up the pants leg to see how severe the damage was to the wounds there. Stitches were stupid as Spencer would be healed before the stitches could even do anything. So the wounds were closed with Steri-Strips. It would make sure that it scarred less. 

"It doesn't hurt any more than it did before," Spencer offered as he looked at his leg. Aaron nodded his agreement that it didn't look too bad. It was stopped on the bleeding so he unrolled the wrap that loose around the wounds so that the pants wouldn't make it bleed or that the blood didn't get on the pants. Aaron was gentle was he ran his fingers around the areas on the wounds. He felt Spencer shudder.

"We have a flight out tomorrow. Strauss wants us to take the day and relax today and part of tomorrow. We have enough time to go and see your mother and just do some relaxing."

"She's usually not good for more than a few hours so we can visit her, get dinner and just stay in the hotel room if you want.

"Yeah, that sounds wonderful." Aaron wanted to kiss the wounds but he wouldn't here. While it was pretty much an open secret, Aaron didn't want to give anyone anything that would work against them or give them a bad look. Aaron rolled the pants leg back down and helped Spencer settle his leg on the ground. Aaron watched him walk over to grab the keys to the SUV they were using and his messenger bag from the conference room. JJ entered, and Aaron didn't even try to not listen in.

"I'll clear all of this up, Spence. You go and take Hotch to see your mom."

"Thanks, JJ." Spencer walked to where she was standing by the door and kissed her forehead. "I need to talk to her, and I'm afraid, so I'll do anything to put that off."

"Yeah, I could tell that," JJ said with a grin on her face at Spencer. It made Spencer laugh, and Aaron figured it was what she was going for. 

The team he was still adjusting about everything they had learned about four members of the team, but so far Garcia was doing good, being able to talk to Sofia about it all and it seemed that Dave and JJ were taking it in stride.

Spencer was silent the entire time that he drove to Bennington. He parked the SUV in a parking spot that was made for guests of residents of Bennington. 

Aaron remembered meeting Diana when the whole thing with the Fisher King was happening and then again when he had gone with Spencer to see her during the last case that brought them to Vegas. The nightmares that Spencer had on that case made a lot more sense when viewed with the past that Aaron now knew. 

"We don't have to do this," Aaron said. He knew that Spencer needed to, but Spencer also needed to push himself to do it.

"I know that we don't have to, but I want to, Aaron. I need to do this. I need to go and see her."

"She's never going to be disappointed in you. Ever." Aaron got out of the SUV and walked around to the driver's side door and opened it. He looked at Spencer for a few seconds before turning his face to look at him. Spencer's body followed, his legs parting so Aaron could slip up between them. Aaron tipped Spencer's face up to his own and smile. "She loves you as you are, Spencer. She wants you to be happy. You were happy enough hiding as a human. You are much happier like this, she's going to be happy because you are happy."

Spencer nodded, but he still looked like he was going to the gallows. Aaron didn't say anything else. He held out his hands, and Spencer slipped his hands into them and allowed Aaron to pull him from the SUV. Aaron tucked Spencer into his side, wrapping an arm around Spencer's shoulders after letting go of his hands. 

Doctor Norman was waiting for them at the doorway. He had a soft smile on his face and looked rather fond of Spencer.

"You know, Diana has talked to me about the fact that you are keeping a secret from her. I thought she was not adjusting well to you being in a relationship with your boss, but I know a Shifter when I see one, even though I am Human. I remembered thinking that Spencer worked with a good many of them. You all move very differently. It’s something I've learned over my years. I run a mental facility that holds a lot of Humans but a few strays from across the country, Agent Hotchner. I know that you've had to question the guards that go with you when you come here."

"Yes." 

"We also take in those Shifters who are too damaged to be among regular people. I have a lot that live as humane a life as I can give them. Many packs still don't hold that they need help, just that they need death. This place is a sanctuary. It's why Shifters only have escorts. However, given what your team is, as long as you are with Spencer, I'll agree to cut the guard for you. I don't see you ever killing a person because they are mentally damaged."

"This is where that UnSub Shifter who was taken alive and put into care because he was not sane enough to ever stand trial."

"Yes. He's in a room that gets outside air, and he's not allowed to hurt anyone. He'll never leave here."

"No wonder this place is so big. I wasn't aware that a place like this existed."

"Few do and those that do hold our secrets." Doctor Norman looked at Spencer with a smile. "Spencer, your mother requests to speak to your Aaron alone for now."

"I figured that she would." Spencer pressed a kiss to Aaron's cheek before he slipped from Aaron's hold and moved to follow Doctor Norman. 

Aaron knew that Diana liked to be in the sunny part of the facility when the sun was out. He knew how to get to where she was because Spencer had described it several times when he talked about the few times he had gone to see his mother over the years. She was sitting with her face up into the sun and a book on her lap, her hand holding it open. Her eyes were closed like she was soaking up the sun.

"Professor Reid," Aaron said as he settled into the chair across from her. There was a tea service set out beside her. Diana looked at him and smiled. 

"Agent Hotchner," Diana said.

"You can call me Aaron, Ma'am," Aaron said. 

"And you can call me Diana. We both know why you are here. I remember the smell of my son when he shifted for the last time. I remember that smell well. So he's finally accepted what he is and figured out what you, Morgan, and Prentiss are?"

"Yes," Aaron said. He knew that she was smart, but Aaron hadn't realized that she was that clued into things. He wondered how she knew about Prentiss. Prentiss had never actually met Diana.

"He was so clueless, but I knew my son's fears, and I knew the ways to manage those fears. He's talked about you all in his letters. He likes Prentiss as a friend, and it wasn't hard to figure out what she was by the way he described her acting. You and Morgan, I knew what you were the first time I laid eyes on you."

"I figured that out when I found out that Spencer was a Shifter. He did well at hiding it. He still mainlines the coffee, but he has no chance of every smelling human again. He's a good young man."

"And you love him. I knew that when you came with him on the last case, you worked here in Vegas. I'm glad that you and Morgan stayed behind to help him figure out the issues with his father. Though given the news that has worked its way even here, there is not a lot that is good to be said for the pack that destroyed my family."

"No, there is not." Aaron wasn't sure what to tell her and what to not tell her. He just kept his peace for now. 

"Do you think that any of them will end up here?"

"No, Ma'am, I don't think so. None of them are that damaged, mentally. At least the ones that I have met. Still, if they do, I'm sure that they will be kept well away from you." And if not, Aaron would make sure that it did happen.

"He's happy?" Diana asked, and even though it was a little non-sequitur, Aaron understood what she was asking.

"Yes, I think so. He's adapting well to having his wolf in his life again. He's adapting well to being outed so to speak. There is no way to hide anything, the team all knows. We have been given the reins to work Shifter cases since over half of the team are. He's adjusting well to having people in his life that he's not used to."

"And having an adopted son for all intents and purposes?"

"Well enough. Jack's not been around us as much as I would like but Spencer's barely holding what he is and adding too much too soon would be too much." Aaron heard steps behind him and turned to see that it was Spencer. He looked unsure, so Aaron held out his hand. Spencer walked right to him and settled onto his lap with no issue and no tugging on Aaron's side of things. He looked at his mom with a scared look on his face. 

"Spencer, why are you looking at me like that?" Diana asked. She didn't look upset at all but was kind of smiling.

"I never want to disappoint you."

"And you never have. Even when you joined the FBI when I wasn't that happy about you doing it. I was worried about you. You found a good team though, a wonderful team that has become family, that has become a pack. The pack you should have had to begin with. The pack that your father was too scared to make sure that you had. You have a man who loves you, and if you allow yourself to embrace what you are, a family that will be with you until the end." 

Aaron wrapped his arm around Spencer's waist and pulled him back into his chest. Spencer settled there, near boneless in the wake of what his mother said. Aaron pressed a kiss to his cheek while Spencer found his words. It was going to be a good visit, which is what Spencer needed. 


	13. Chapter 13

# Part 13

Spencer had not been expecting for them to stop at their respective places long enough to gather up new clothes and Aaron packed an extra bag of others things that Spencer wasn't sure what was inside of it. They had done that and more at Aaron's place. Aaron had just grinned at him. More food was picked up at the store that was close to the farm. Spencer had stayed outside to look around, getting to know the area better. He paused when he saw a family of five pulling up in their van. He could smell that they were Shifters. Which didn't surprise him at all. This area screamed of the perfect place for Shifter families to live. It was close to the city but not too close. It afforded them privacy and if they had the land, a perfect place for kids to get to learn to become themselves. The pack in Vegas had been like that before. 

Vegas was in turmoil, and it was going to be years before the government, on every level, stopped butting into their lives. Lighthouse and O'Halloran were not going to escape unscathed as they had no clue the horribleness that had gone on right under their noses. They would not be sanctioned or charged with crimes of any kind, but they were going to be watched. So far neither pack had an issue with that. 

Families from the Shea pack were going to move wholesale to the other packs, staying as family units where possible. Kids were going to be staying together no matter what. Packs were good at taking in kids to help raise. Shifters wanted to protect, and no one needed more protection than kids. 

Spencer had been asked for his opinion on bringing up issues even as far back as his, and he had told them plainly that it showed the path that led Jake Shea to become what he was. Spencer was one of the firsts, but there had been many more beforehand. 

"Spencer!" Aaron called out from the back end of the SUV. 

Spencer turned to look at his lover. Aaron had changed into tight fitting jeans that had a little hole starting on Aaron's knee. He was also wearing a simple red T-shirt. Spencer had changed into a pair of khakis and a button up but a thin short sleeved shirt. It was light purple, and Aaron hadn't been able to keep his eyes off of Spencer. 

"Lunch." Aaron held up to paper bags that looked like the kind of lunches that mom's used to pack for kids in times that were no longer. 

Spencer's stomach growled. There had been a huge thunderstorm that had delayed planes leaving Vegas for a little while. The team had been pushed back, so they had hung out in the terminal of the airport and did whatever they wanted, there were some card games, reading, sleeping. Until the jet had taken off. They had got home at four in the morning local time. Aaron had talked Spencer into a little more sleep at Aaron's as they had both been asleep on the jet and then they had woken up to get ready to head back out to the farm to finish off their vacation. Spencer was looking forward to that so much. He needed time to get himself settled after it felt like Vegas had laid him bare. 

Aaron started to walk away from Spencer as soon as Spencer started toward him. Spencer frowned but followed his lover into the wooded area behind the gas station/diner/grocery store that was the whole of the ability to get things in this area that wasn't driving to a city. Spencer followed the sound of Aaron as the trees were thick enough where they were that he couldn't see him the greatest. Then Spencer stepped into a clearing. There were a few picnic trees around, and the trees still made it pretty shady even if there were no trees in the middle. 

"This is pretty," Spencer said. Aaron was sitting down at the table in the center, on the top of the table and not the actual seat. Spencer could appreciate it. 

"I love stopping here and eating if I am hungry. I figured that once we got to the farm, it would be a busy time, so lunch here sounded good." Aaron held out his hand, and Spencer slipped his into it. Spencer was tugged into him to where he had to kneel on the seat of the table to get as close as Aaron wanted. The feel of Aaron's hands on him was good. Too good almost. Spencer settled his hands on Aaron's thighs, gripping tight so that Aaron knew that Spencer didn't want him to go anywhere. Aaron was the first to break, to slip his hands up to pull Spencer's face to kiss. When Spencer didn't fight it and moved forward to kiss him, Aaron rubbed his hands down his neck, down his shoulders. Touching again. Touching everywhere. 

Aaron settled his hands on Spencer's hips, and there were just a few seconds for Spencer to realize what Aaron was going to do to get his legs under him and ready to push up to help when Aaron pulled him up. Aaron kept on moving though to where Spencer was on top of him, and he was laying down on the tabletop. Spencer had to brace an arm on the table to stop himself from cracking Aaron in the head with his forehead. Aaron was laughing, so it set Spencer off as well. Aaron raised his knees making a little valley there for Spencer to settle into. Spencer leaned in to start the kissing again and as soon as he did, Aaron's fingers tangled into his hair. 

Demanding was a good word for what Aaron's mood was like. He took control of the kiss and didn't let up until he had what he wanted. Spencer felt himself start to harden, but he didn't do anything about that. They were not going to have sex in the open like they were. Anyone who was stopping at the gas station could see them. Aaron didn't try and deepen it or thrust up into Spencer. It was like they were saying hello after a long time apart instead of them never really having been apart. 

They had only slept though at Aaron's place and not actually had sex. Still, the intimacy of just being able to sleep next to Aaron was enough. He didn't need the sex for them to be close. He enjoyed just being close to him. 

Spencer felt his stomach start to rumble and it did so loud that Aaron laughed. Spencer couldn't help but follow after him, his arm giving out from shaking and he landed on Aaron with an oomph has Aaron's air was forced from his lungs. That only made them both laugh more, Aaron's a little pained from not enough air, but still, it was good. Aaron sat up slowly, grabbing Spencer's knees to settle him on his lap.

"Kind of hard to eat like this, isn't it?" Spencer asked, but he looped his arms around Aaron's neck, not even trying to get away.

"It is but I find myself loathe to let you go at the moment." Aaron's hands settled on Spencer's ass holding him there. 

Spencer knew that things had been changing between them, they were moving too fast for normal humans, but they were no normal humans. They spent little time apart. If they weren't at Aaron's they were at Spencer's apartment, but Aaron preferred his own. Spencer didn't really care. He'd never attached meaning to a place too much before, but he did have to say that he liked the feeling of home that Aaron's apartment gave him. Spencer wondered how long it would be before Aaron asked Spencer to move in with him. Spencer just figured that Aaron was waiting to see how Jack was really taking it all. 

"Well, I need to eat, so you have two seconds before I do something to make you let me go."

"Oh, really?" Aaron asked arching an eyebrow at Spencer was giving him a wicked look. He lunged forward, his teeth closing on Spencer's neck right at the point that always made Spencer's cock harden and his body go limp. He didn't feel the need to fight Aaron at all on it. He didn't need to do anything other than just let Aaron dominate him that way. Aaron only every did it playfully, and Spencer was glad of it. He had seen it used on people before for not good things. He trusted Aaron profusely, and Aaron would never abuse that trust, ever. 

"Keep doing that, and I'm going to bite back," Spencer said, how voice sounding huskier than he wanted it to. He knew that he had only bit Aaron the one time. He didn't feel the need to do it more than that. He hadn't even playfully bit Aaron since that night they had gotten together. Spencer hadn't felt the urge. He figured it was because he was okay being the slightly more submissive partner in the relationship. Aaron didn't force his will over Spencer in anything outside of training. 

"Fine," Aaron muttered before he let go of Spencer's neck, the word muffled into Spencer's skin. He sounded like a petulant school child who was caught with their hand in the cookie jar. He was smiling though as he pulled back to kiss Spencer before taking his hands off of him. 

Spencer slipped backward off of Aaron's lap and smiled at him before sitting down beside him on the top of the table. He opened up the first brown paper bag and caught a whiff of spicy brown mustard, so he handed that to Aaron. Spencer opened the second and found that it had inside a packet of spicy mayo on top, so he knew that it was his. Aaron had picked out some freshly made sandwiches with meat and cheese from the deli. There was a bottle of water, a bag of chips, and a cookie inside, Spencer's cookie looked like something with a lot of chocolate and nuts. Aaron scooted to where he was pressed into Spencer's side from shoulders to knees and then started to eat. 

Aaron had picked a blackened turkey with what looked like pepper jack cheese for Spencer while Aaron's was a meat trio with pepper jack cheese. Aaron loved his spicy things and Spencer liked his pepper jack cheese, but even Aaron's love of spicy was more than Spencer could handle sometimes. 

Spencer took a bite of his sandwich after taking the top off to get the mayo on it. Spencer couldn't help the moan that he let out as he chewed. He looked at Aaron to see him smirking.

"No wonder," Spencer said after he swallowed his first bite. "I couldn't find that turkey and cheese anywhere in DC and the area. It's from here!" Spencer reached over and shoved at Aaron. 

After an injury had left Spencer dizzy for a few days and the doctor didn't want him home alone, Aaron had taken him in. He had come back one morning with meat and cheese from a place Spencer didn’t know. Aaron must have gone one a quick run at the farm that night, and on the drive home, he had to have stopped and picked up the meat and cheese. The bags didn't have names on them just the weight and the price. Spencer had spent months going everywhere that sold deli meats and cheeses. 

"You are an asshole," Spencer said. 

"But you love me anyway." Aaron grinned the entire time that they were eating, even though they said nothing else. 

They cleaned up their area before walking back to the SUV. The cooler with the food was being loaded into the back of the SUV by a man and a woman. They both gave Aaron a thumbs up. He grinned. 

"The rest will be dropped off in about four hours, is that okay?"

"Plenty of time for dinner. Thanks, Joe, Ellen."

"You are always welcome, Aaron." the woman, Ellen said. 

"What did you buy?"

"Something fun for me," Aaron said with a massive grin on his face. His face was showing laugh lines more now, and Spencer knew that it only had partly to do with him. He was quite happy that he was able to put even a single laugh line on Aaron's face, Jack though was the source of most of them. 

"Fun for you huh?" Spencer asked as he opened his side of the SUV before getting inside. 

The drive to the farm wasn't that long, but to Aaron, it seemed like it was forever, or Spencer assumed that was why Aaron's leg that wasn't on the pedals was bouncing up and down. It was a rare show of nerves from him. Spencer didn't ask though because he knew that Aaron would tell him when he was good and ready to tell him what was wrong. 

Aaron parked in the same spot that he had the last time. 

"The stuff in the back will be fine, they packed the cooler with some dry ice."

"Okay..." Spencer trailed off because it wasn't like they didn't have time to put it all away. They had only planned to relax when they got there for today. The other days could be spent running and teaching Spencer more about tracking and things like that. Spencer was glad for the instruction on things like that. He was just happy that Aaron liked teaching him. 

"I want to-" Aaron stopped and swallowed before he got out of the SUV. He was looking at the tree line behind the house, well as much as he could be looking at it from the position that he was in. 

Spencer got out of the SUV and walked around to where Aaron was. Spencer forced Aaron to look at him with a hand on his chin. Aaron's eyes were wolf eyes. Spencer knew that the day would come, he knew enough about Shifter packs and compatible breeds to understand the biology behind them. He knew that it was the issues that some Shifters had when starting a relationship with a Human. Most Humans were not into sex with animals, even if that animal wasn't actually an animal but a Human in animal skin. 

The thought of sex in animal form had always freaked Spencer out. They had not discussed it between them and Spencer kind of regretted that at this moment. The thing was that it didn't disgust Spencer at the moment. The thought of sex in their wolf forms. The thought of Aaron catching him and for all intents and purposes mounting him. It was nothing more than the wolf inside of Aaron laying a claim on him. It was no more or no less than that, but it was still a little strange to think about. Spencer knew that if he said no, Aaron would never bring it up again. He knew that if he said not now, Aaron would bring it up again or just wait for Spencer to bring it up again. 

This would pretty much be it. He would be saying goodbye to his life alone. Aaron wasn't the kind of man, the kind of Shifter to allow Spencer to live his life away from him. Spencer could maybe get away with a day or two of packing and things like that. Aaron would probably demand to pay the breaking of Spencer's lease, but Spencer had already talked to his landlord about it all. There were enough people who wanted places like his that it wouldn't sit empty for longer than a month before someone was moving into it. Spencer had been a little shocked when he had found out that the building was Shifter friendly but that at the moment Spencer was the only one like it that lived there. The landlord understood, and when the time was right, Spencer would be free of his lease. 

"Strip," Spencer said. 

Aaron looked at Spencer. He was frowning. Like he thought that Spencer didn't understand what he wanted. What Aaron wanted. Spencer worked on the buttons of his shirt. He liked his khakis and his shirt, and he didn't want to damage them. It was like a knee jerk reaction for Aaron as he ripped his shirt up and over his head. 

Spencer was already plotting the path this time of where he wanted to go. How he was going to do his best to evade Aaron. He didn't think he would get as much lead time this time and would have to rely on his speed to keep him out of Aaron's grasp. Four hours before anyone else was going to be arriving. That was a lot of time to keep himself away from Aaron. A lot of time to see how well he could keep away from Aaron. 

Unlike usual, Spencer dropped his clothes where he was standing. The grass wouldn't hurt them, and there was no sense in even trying to act like he wasn't going to go running through the woods in his pelt. Aaron's eyes followed his every move, from when he dropped his hands to his belt to take it off, dropping it to the ground, then to his button and then the zipper. It was like Aaron was entranced by the moves that Spencer was making. Aaron had seen him strip a lot, even before they had got into a relationship. They shared rooms a lot, Morgan's habits annoying both of them and Rossi just usually paid for his own room if he had to bunk with anyone. It was interesting to see Aaron liking what he saw and enjoying it. Spencer didn't do anything exceptional, just got his clothes off of his body. 

Spencer's body had been slowly changing, the running in both forms had made his leg muscles look a little more defined. He would never be one of those guys with muscles that looked like corded ropes all over his entire body, but there was a little bit of that all over him. There was even a little bit of definition where the muscles in his hips were. Spencer had heard Prentiss and JJ going on one time about the way men's hips made a V and that it was sexy. Spencer never asked Aaron, but given the way that when they were naked, he held Spencer from there, he could see it. 

When Spencer looked at Aaron, he didn't see his lover. He saw a wolf in Human skin. He swallowed.

"Run," Aaron said. 


	14. Chapter 14

# Part 14

Aaron watched as Spencer stripped, the scent of low-level arousal that had been coming off of him since lunch started to pick up even more and then there was the smell of fear on him. Not fear of Aaron, not fear of what they were about to do but the fear of giving in on something that even now, Spencer controlled. Even when he had been fighting against the foxes who had taken him and Prentiss hostage, he had not let himself go. He had stayed calm and in control. He had not become the animal inside. He either didn't trust himself, or he didn't trust his wolf self. Aaron wanted to see that change, and this was one of the steps that was going to be needed for him to accept that. 

Spencer hadn't hesitated on what he was doing, even when Aaron couldn't actually get the words out of his mouth. Spencer had been the one to demand that Aaron strip. They would be doing this once more, at a later point in time when Spencer had entirely accepted what Shea had seen that had scared him. If Aaron weren't around, Spencer would be the one that would lead the pack. They were both leaders, they were both Alphas, but Spencer would always naturally submit to Aaron because Spencer saw him as stronger, but they were equal, just different sides of the same coin. It would have made for a strong and wonderful pack if they ever quit doing what they were doing and formed a pack, but Aaron didn't see them doing that at any point in time that was close. 

Aaron knew that he would need to catch up on the getting naked part, but he was enjoying seeing Spencer take his clothes off. He always did, but in the sun with the scents of the woods around them, it was kind of perfect to Aaron. He wanted to see this more. This was more than a claiming. This was going to be the point of no return. Aaron wasn't going to let Spencer go without a hellish fight after this. There was a reason that Haley had never let him do this to her. That she had never let him mount her in his wolf form. His wolf would refuse to let him go if they did it. Aaron had wanted to do it, at several different points when they had been young and even in the years that followed. Aaron knew that he should have put more stock into the fact that his more baser self hadn't wanted to do it the last near ten years of their marriage. Haley had changed. Aaron had changed. Neither of them was anywhere close to the person they had been when they had been young, but instead of growing and changing together they had both becomes islands that were nowhere near each other. 

Spencer was naked, looking at Aaron and Aaron felt his wolf self creeping more and more to the front. 

"Run." Aaron heard the near growl in his voice, and all it did was make Spencer shiver before he turned around, and in a smooth move that Aaron had never seen before, Spencer took a step as a human and then the second as a wolf. He was gone in seconds into the woods that surrounded the property. Aaron felt his wolf wanting to give chase, but Aaron wanted to get naked first. He loved his jeans and didn't want to take the chance of ripping them. Aaron hadn't found another pair like them in years. 

Aaron started to finish getting naked as he listened to Spencer taking off. About twenty feet into the trees, though Spencer stopped making noise. Aaron grinned. He was submitting to the wolf inside of him and letting it guide him on what he was doing. There was a reason that Shifters were okay as lone wolves so to speak. There was something mystical to what they were, and they all knew how to become one with themselves, how to hunt, fight, track, run, stalk, and so many other things that the animals of the woods did that there was no way there wasn't something that looked them over. Aaron had never taken much stock in the actual prayer that a lot of the Shifters got into, but he did know that there was something and the only thing that he needed to do to appease the entity was to be the best that he could be. The best Human, the best Shifter. And if there were something more needed, Aaron would be pushed to do that. He had been pushed to go after Spencer that night after they got back from Canada. Aaron had been tired as hell, but the thought of going home and drinking had felt wrong as hell. 

Instead, Aaron had gone to Spencer's apartment, and their entire lives changed, and Aaron would get on his knees and thank whatever guided him for the rest of his life if that entity appeared and told him that he had to. Aaron had never questioned his feelings like that when pressed he always chalked it up to gut instinct and let it be that. Aaron had never brought it all up with Spencer as he wasn't sure what Spencer's thoughts were on the subject. Worship like a lot of Humans did to their God was something that Spencer didn't like, but Aaron wondered how he felt about the Nature God that the Shifters prayed to, not for help but just for a peaceful life and a happy life. 

When Aaron was down to skin, he shifted in a smooth and quick move that felt near sexual to him. He shuddered as his body took that second to adjust. When Aaron had shifted the first few times, he had felt weird, and it wasn't until he had matured sexually that he realized why. Aaron loved being a Shifter. He loved the feel of the ground under his paws. He loved tracking animals. The whole killing and eating animals things had been an adjustment but not a long one. 

Aaron didn't give Spencer long at all to hide in the woods before he took off after him. The scent of him died at the pond, and Aaron growled in frustration. He circled the pond to see where the scent picked up, but it was long gone. Aaron waited to see if the wind picked up again and it did after a few moments. Spencer's scent was not on the wind at all. Aaron looked around to figure out where the best place for Spencer to hide was. It wasn't like Spencer was good at it. He hadn't been just a week before. Hell, Spencer was nearly impossible to hide in either form. So that meant that he was adjusting well to being a wolf. 

The area filled with the sound of flapping wings and Aaron turned to see a flock of starlings take off from trees about thirty feet away from where he was. Aaron grinned before taking off in that direction. When he got to where they had started, there was still no scent of Spencer at all, but there was the scent of a deer. Aaron followed the deer to where it was now and then back to where it had started. Still no smell of Spencer. Aaron felt like he was being played. 

Spencer was smart. He was one of the smartest men that Aaron knew, he just knew little about his own self as a Shifter, but it seemed that something had changed recently. Something had gone very different, and Aaron wondered if the play they had been doing the day before the case had been Spencer testing Aaron more than Aaron testing Spencer. 

The saying about a butterfly flapping its wings in one area to create a storm in another came to Aaron's mind. Aaron wondered where exactly Spencer had gone, but it seemed that the deer thing had been a distraction. Aaron turned back to head to the pond again to pick up the scent of where Spencer had started from to figure out if he had backtracked. Aaron found a weak scent of Spencer, covered mainly by the water in the pond about halfway between where Aaron had picked up his scent and the pond. There was more of the scent of the pond than there should have been, so that meant that Spencer had backtracked and covered his tracks there. Aaron took it nice and slow, trusting his nose for what he was doing. He found that Spencer had been reading up on trails and scents and everything. He had been engrossed in reading the final few days in Vegas as they had stayed as part of a goodwill effort on the FBI to help them with the issues they were having with the disbanding of the Shea pack. 

Spencer wasn't needed for any of that, and while Shea was more than happy to threaten him, no one took that seriously. Shea had no power anymore. The Shifters that did not submit to the state's ruling on it all had been locked up pending charges of collusion. It was strange to see Vegas, the city, the people, adapting to having packs be out and proud in it. Given Vegas's history with everything, it was one of the best cities to come out first. Vegas was pretty accepting.

Aaron found Spencer's scent, strong and fresh. Aaron realized that the little shit was stalking Aaron while Aaron was tracking him. Aaron didn't react at all. He instead followed the scent as Spencer wanted him to. He figured that at some point, Spencer would let himself be caught but if Aaron had a chance before that, he would take it. 

The ever-approaching deadline of when the grill and gas were going to be dropped off by Joe and Ellen was at the back of Aaron's mind. It wasn't like what they were going to do took long, but Spencer would probably prefer to shower and get dressed in different clothes before they arrived. Then after them was the rest of what Aaron considered the pack. Jessica was going to be bringing by Jack first and then and only then if Spencer was willing was Haley. There would always be a place for Haley in Aaron's life because they had Jack. Aaron knew that Spencer knew how pack dynamics worked, but it wasn't like he seemed to care all that much. 

Aaron found Spencer's trail again, a lot stronger than before, he had been through the area not too long before. Aaron could smell more than just the rush of the chase with Spencer. Spencer had no fear in his scent anymore and was aroused. That put a pep in Aaron's step as it were. He put on a burst of speed. Aaron could smell Spencer's scent getting stronger and stronger as he followed behind him. Until finally, he could hear him as well, that also meant that Spencer should be able to hear him. Aaron burst through a line of trees and saw the back end of Spencer's tail. Aaron pushed himself to where at the next bend in the area that Spencer was running through, Aaron was able to dart forward and knock himself into Spencer. They went rolling, but Spencer didn't submit. 

The blood was rushing through Aaron's body as he tried not to lose himself in a frenzy. Spencer was going to make him work for it, and Aaron was okay with that. He wanted to claim Spencer, to make sure that Spencer knew he was more than willing to do whatever was needed to keep him. Aaron launched himself at Spencer, snarling as he tried to pin him. Aaron didn't care about scratches or anything like that. They were going to look like they fought anyway, it was the way of things when Alphas mated. Aaron got himself on Spencer's back and got ready to bite when Spencer bucked him off and took off again. 

Aaron knew he was going to win and the hunt and chase would make it all the more sweeter. 

XxXxXxX

Aaron stretched and wrapped his arm around Spencer just a little tighter. They were in human form, which Aaron was glad of. He didn't want Spencer freaking out from being still in wolf form. Aaron could smell the sweat, the sex, the blood, and even the earth all around them. Spencer had been hard to catch, but it had made the sex after that all the better. Aaron had aches in places that he hadn't ached at in years. Spencer was still asleep, and Aaron didn't mind it at all, he could feel his cock still lodged inside of Spencer. Aaron was thankful that the knot he had as a wolf didn't carry over to his Human side. Aaron made a check of his body, his leg was thrown over Spencer's hip, holding Spencer down, so he was sort of on his side. Aaron could almost feel the connection between them now. 

Spencer moved a little, but Aaron knew that he wasn't awake yet or close to. His hips shifted, and it made Aaron gasp. Aaron smiled into Spencer's neck before he let his hand trail down to where he was holding him in place, fingers spread over Spencer's stomach to lock him there. Aaron felt himself start to harden inside of Spencer again and he really hoped Spencer didn't move around too much while he was asleep. Aaron slid his leg back to where he wasn't over Spencer anymore and then quickly rolled Spencer to where he was on his side and not halfway between being on his front and on his side. Aaron worked his other hand under Spencer's head to where Spencer could use it as a pillow instead of his own hand. 

Aaron didn't move, just laid there wrapped around Spencer as Spencer woke up softly and gently from his nap. Spencer had worn himself out, making Aaron work for the claim he had on Spencer now. That had been worth it all though. Spencer was sleepy and pliant in Aaron's arms, and he didn't even try and fight it at all when Aaron started to rock inside of him. Aaron didn't do that until Spencer was fully awake. 

"How can you be hard again?" Spencer asked, gasping as he did. He didn't try and get away though. 

"I've not had enough of you yet," Aaron whispered into Spencer's ear. 

"You fucked me for an hour," Spencer declared.

"It wasn't an hour." Aaron pulled Spencer back into him, curving Spencer's hips to where he could do short, hard thrusts. He wasn't going to last long, and he knew it. Aaron reached down for Spencer's cock but found it soft. Aaron started to stop, but Spencer made a noise of displeasure. Aaron palmed Spencer's cock for a minute as he still inside of him. 

"Please," Spencer said. 

"I'm getting you hard first, Spencer." Aaron turned his head to where he could scrape his teeth over Spencer's shoulder. When he found the spot that he wanted, he clamped harder, the reaction was nearly instantaneous. Spencer bucked, nearly coming off of Aaron's cock but his cock started to harden in Aaron's hands. It wasn't going to be enough. Aaron thought that lazy, happy sex would be good but it wasn't going to be. Aaron pulled all the way out of Spencer before he pulled Spencer over onto his hands and knees. Aaron spit into his hand and spread that over Spencer's hole. Spencer would be sore but he hadn't asked to stop or for Aaron to run and get the lube. Aaron spit again and smeared that on his cock. There was some fluid still inside of Spencer from their fucking the night before, but he wanted to make sure that he did as much as possible to hurt Spencer as little as possible. 

Aaron watched as Spencer grabbed the dirt, his fingers digging into it to try and get a purchase. Aaron waited until Spencer was done with that before he grabbed Spencer's cheeks and spread them. Aaron watched as he slowly sunk his cock into him. When he was buried in as far as he could get, Aaron wrapped his hands around Spencer's hips, holding him tightly. He held Spencer still as he pulled out and thrust back him, as hard as he could. He dug his knees into the dirt, feeling a rock pushing into part of his shin but he didn't care. Aaron fucked Spencer hard, making him moan, scream, beg, plead. Aaron loved this, reducing Spencer to what he was feeling. 

Spencer was so much into his head a lot that letting go was hard. Aaron figured it was why Spencer didn't like to be the one doing the fucking as much. Aaron didn't care who did the fucking, he loved sex. He loved sex with Spencer, and he was glad to have it as much as possible. Spencer didn't try and fight it when he came, Aaron followed a few thrusts later, keeping himself upright and Spencer with him. Aaron finally let go of Spencer with one hand and wrapped it around his stomach to pull him up to where Spencer was kind of on his lap. Aaron's cock was still inside of him. 

"I'm half tempted to not let you clean up. Keep you smelling of this for the rest of the day, but I know that you would fight me on that and I don't want to be in the doghouse for days while we are here." 

"You wouldn't last long in the dog house before begging to be let back in." Spencer sounded like he was awake and not falling asleep which was good. Spencer liked to sleep after sex, but Aaron assumed he just liked being in someone's arms or being wrapped around them. 

"I wouldn't," Aaron agreed. 

The sound of Aaron's phone ringing said that they were going to be rushed to get cleaned up.

"Who is that?" Spencer asked. 

Aaron had set his phone to ring at the loudest and most annoying setting for Jessica. 

"That's Jessica, and they are about an hour out. I guess they left early." Aaron had them set to arrive an hour after the grill was dropped off. He needed to get them into the house and cleaned up as it seemed they would be arriving at the same time. 

Aaron was on his feet, pulling Spencer with him when the sound of a horn honking told Aaron that Jessica was still going to arrive an hour after the grill and the grill was arriving then. Spencer looked at Aaron with a look of slight horror on his face. 

"Shift and get inside. I'll grab clothes and get them on."

"Who is that?" Spencer hissed.

"Joe and Eve with the grill and gas tank for the grill. For the pack meal."

"Pack meal?" Spencer looked a little overwhelmed. "Haley, Jessica, Jack and the team are coming?"

"I figured it would be better that Haley meet the team with the new knowledge that they have. It would make it a lot easier for them to listen to a Human who lives on the edges."

"And you want them all to know now where we are away from the city that you've claimed me as yours." Spencer didn't look upset. In fact, he looked like he knew it had been coming. Aaron was glad of that, he really wasn't made to be in the doghouse.


	15. Chapter 15

# Part 15

"Daddy!" Jack yelled as he got out of the back of Jessica Brooks' car. 

Spencer was a little shocked that the child safety door wasn't engaged on the car but it seemed that Jessica and Aaron were not that worried about it. Aaron crouched down as Jack jumped into his arms, flinging his arms around Aaron's neck and holding on tight. Spencer was still inside of the farmhouse looking out the window in the living room. Jack had not noticed him yet but Jessica had. Aaron was very happy they were there and Spencer was as well. Aaron wasn't normally that secretive about Jack in Spencer's life but he wondered if with the whole case and then claiming if it had slipped Aaron's mind about whatever this was that Aaron had planned. It would be fun, whatever it was, Spencer knew that. With the team there, Spencer would have a buffer between him and Haley if it was needed. 

Jessica was easy to get along with but Spencer hadn't seen Haley since he and Aaron had started a relationship. It wasn't that Spencer was avoiding her, it was just that when the time for a talk was going to happen, the team got a case and Spencer couldn't help that. Jessica looked up at Spencer and waved her hand at him. That drew Jack's attention to him. Jack's face lit up and Spencer started to walk to the door. Jack was running full tilt at him and Spencer knew that if he crouched, Jack was going to knock them back but still he did it. Jack crashed into him and Spencer didn't even try and stop the boy from tipping them over. He saw the near glow in Jack's eyes. Spencer wasn't sure that Aaron was ready for what that meant. 

"I missed you, Spencer," Jack said as he near laid on top of Spencer, his head going to Spencer's shoulders and his arms trying to wiggle under Spencer's body. 

"I missed you, too, Jack," Spencer said as he sat up enough to where Jack could hug him. Spencer looked at Jessica to see that she wasn't concerned so either she hadn't seen it or it was the first time that Jack had done it. Spencer knew that kids who were troubled and went through turmoil sometimes shifted for the first time very early in life and the very ugly divorce could have been what set it off. Especially if Haley and Aaron fought just enough after it that Jack felt the need to protect himself just a little.

"I have something to show you, Spencer!" 

"Yeah?" Spencer asked. The last thing that Jack had showed him had been a fumbled magic trick that Jack had seen Spencer do once. Jack had replicated it pretty well for his age and the fact that he hadn't been taught it. 

"It's a secret though." Jack looked at Aaron and then Jessica his head turned enough to see them but he hadn't let go of Spencer yet. "I want to show you and then Dad and Aunt Jessica."

Spencer looked at Aaron and Aaron nodded his head. He didn't seem that concerned. Spencer stood up, carrying Jack with him. Jack's trust in Aaron's team was near absolute. If the team ever got someone on it that was going to do bad things, it wasn't going to be good as Jack would just trust them to be good to him. 

"Where do you want to show me this secret?" Spencer asked.

"Back of the house." 

Spencer turned that way, giving Aaron a smile before they went around the side of the house. When they were at the back of the house, Jack wiggled so Spencer set him down. Jack took a few steps before he turned back to look at Spencer. His eyes were glowing again and Spencer was about to yell for Aaron when Jack changed into a tiny wolf cub, gray wolf like his father. Spencer was stuck on the spot and he didn't know what to do. Jack stumbled over to Spencer, his legs not quite working right and he pawed at Spencer's pants leg. Spencer leaned over and carefully picked him up. Jack fell over into Spencer, placing his paws on Spencer's chest and licking at his face. Jack was tiny, barely old enough to do this at all but still here he was. 

There was only going to be so long of time before Aaron came around to see what was going on, especially with them being silent. Spencer shifted Jack in his arms just a little so that Jack couldn't fall and then he walked toward the side of the house. He came around the last corner but Aaron and Jessica weren't facing him. 

"So do you know what the secret is?" Aaron asked Jessica.

"No. He's been a little distant but we figured it was because this getting pushed back because of the case. I've not really pushed him on that front. Not while Haley has been working more."

"Is she liking the job?" 

"Yes, a lot but right now the other person that does what she does is sick and the other is on vacation so she's pulling near full time just to cover."

"Haley is still happy living in the house, yes?" Aaron asked.

"Yes. Though I think that she does want a change but I should leave that to discuss with her but do push her on it. She's not going to bring it up on her own."

"I will."

"Should we go see? They are quiet, which is odd for those two. Usually they are making more noise than a herd of elephants."

Spencer wanted to feel a little bad about that but Aaron had pushed Spencer to play with Jack, to have fun. Aaron called it Spencer learning about how to be a kid, even when he was an adult. Spencer just stayed here he was but Jack wasn't content to just stand there. He barked. Spencer reached out and was about to muzzle him but Aaron stiffened and Spencer was scared of moving. Aaron slowly turned. 

"That wasn't Spencer was it?" Jessica asked.

"No, too small." Aaron's mouth dropped open and he took a half step forward. Jack barked at him and Spencer could feel his tail start to wag. 

Spencer didn't know what to say. He didn't know why Jack would want to show Spencer first and not his father. There was a lot of things that Spencer thought Jack would want to show him but this wasn't it. Spencer shifted his hold on Jack to where he could hold him out for his father to take but all Aaron did was step up and pet him on the head. 

"You are cute, almost as cute as you are in human form." Aaron scratched at the nape of Jack's neck before he looked up at Spencer with happiness in his eyes. He leaned over and kissed Spencer on the lips making Jack bark again and playfully nip at first Spencer and then Aaron. Spencer looked down in time to see Aaron get bit. "Hey, puppy teeth are sharp." Aaron's tone was playful and Jack barked again. He started to wiggle so Spencer set him down. 

Spencer backed up so he could carefully set Jack down but the boy just jumped from his hands about two feet above the ground. Spencer tried to lunge to grab him but Aaron held him back.

"He's fine, Spencer." Aaron wrapped his arm around Spencer and drew him to where Spencer's back was pressed to his chest. 

Spencer watched as Jack ran to Jessica who crouched down to pet him. 

"Some kids are very independent in this stuff. Haley told me that she's seen the gold glow to his eyes on occasion when he's really, really happy. He's like you, when he's happy he wants to be in fur form. I don't think that anger and strong emotions like that will be his hard to not shift emotions."

"Why did he show me first?"

"Because you are learning how to be happy with yourself and he knows it. He knows that you were scared of showing him the form. He tried to get you to run when you were giving him a ride but you barely trotted. He's showing you that it's okay. That he's just like you and you don't need to treat him with kid gloves. I mean don't take him smoking and drinking but you don't have to hold back." 

"He's a child," Spencer said in response to Aaron's comment about smoking and drinking. 

"Yes, I know he is and I was playing. I need to get food started but why don't you and Jack take a run in fur form. I'm sure that you can trot fast enough that it will give Jack a workout. He can learn the land in wolf form while you learn what it's like to have a kid who annoys you. Watch, though, his teeth are sharp." Aaron laughed and pressed a kiss to Spencer's neck before letting him go. Jack started to jump up and down in front of Spencer before he ran to the trees along the left side of the house. He raced back to Spencer and grabbed the leg of his pants to pull him along, like he could actually do it. 

Spencer looked at Aaron with a pleading look on his face. 

"Oh, no. He showed you first, he wants you. Go and bond, Spencer. It will do you both some good."

Spencer knew that he had Henry. He knew that he wasn't as horrible with kids as he used to be but Henry was still a baby. He was still in the whole peek-a-boo stage. Jack could really hurt himself in the woods. Spencer knew that Jack had been in them as a human a lot. That was different though than being in the woods in fur form. Spencer nodded though and shifted, not getting naked first. He was in clothes that he didn't mind if they got messed up after the shower had taken. That shower had started out alone but after Aaron thank Joe and Ellen for dropping off the grill they had been holding for him for a month, Aaron had joined him. Spencer was still pretty sure that he had the faint odor of sex on him and Aaron's scent was all over him after Aaron had rubbed them both off while pressing Spencer into the wall of the shower. Spencer wasn't going to complain but if Morgan or Prentiss made mention of it, Aaron was going to get it. 

The change was easy, easier than it had ever been for Spencer. There were only a few seconds of thinking about it and then it happening. It was instantaneous. Spencer loved the feel of it for once. Jack jumped up and down in place, barking as he did before he took off for the woods. He stumbled twice, the first time he recovered but the second he fell over and rolled until he got to his feet. He shook himself off and then took off for the woods again. Spencer raced to catch up, figuring that Jack would just fall more when he was inside of the woods and wasn't running on straight grass. 

Jack stopped and smelled at everything, including a hole in the ground that Spencer knew was home to a family of skunks about two hundred feet inside of the woods. Spencer laughed as Jack ran backward so fast he tripped and fell on his ass to get away from the smell. Jack chased a few birds, and even a chipmunk that he found. He wasn't trying to catch it but just play so Spencer settled down into a sunny patch and let Jack play. Jack was good about not getting too far from sight when he was in Human form but in wolf he had a longer distance that he could go, Spencer's ears were good enough to hear him even if he went out of sight. 

The honking of a horn told Spencer that Morgan had arrived but Aaron hadn't called out to tell them to come back so he didn't. Jack was still figuring out the way that his body was moving now and the smells around him. Spencer followed behind when Jack started to head toward the pond. It was a nice and breezy day so that meant that the smell of the pond as on the breeze. Spencer knew that some fish lived in the pond so he wasn't that shocked that Jack fell into the water after two seconds to try and get a fish. Spencer just ducked his head down and grabbed Jack by the nape of the neck and pulled him out. As soon as Spencer let him go, Jack shook himself dry, all over Spencer. Spencer pushed at him with his nose until he fell over. 

Jack growled at Spencer felt lunging at him to try and fight. It was playful and Spencer knew that Jack needed that play to learn how to be what he was so Spencer nosed at him again. Jack fell and this time he rolled before getting to his feet. Spencer hunched down and waited for Jack to attack back. He was small but as Aaron had said, he was not going to be hurt easily. 

Spencer wasn't sure how long they played like that but it was a while as Spencer felt a little worn out from the day's activities when he heard Aaron's whistle cutting through the trees. Jack stopped what he was doing right away and looked up at where the sound came from. He ignored it though and jumped onto Spencer's back again, trying to pin him down to the ground. Spencer stood up, Jack sliding off of him. Spencer carefully picked him up by the scruff of his neck and started to walk fast back to the house. Jack made a few mewling noises but after a minute he settled down some. Spencer was sure that it was a picture worth taking when he appeared between the trees with Jack in his mouth. 

Haley was just getting out of her car while the rest of the team was standing and staring at Spencer. 

"Uh, Hotch. Reid brought home a stray!" Morgan called out. 

Aaron came out of the house with a tray in his hand. He settled the tray onto the grill and turned to look at Spencer and Jack. Spencer dropped Jack down to the ground and Jack took off running for Haley right away. Jack bounced up and down at Haley's feet, barking. 

"Really?" Haley asked as he reached down and plucked a stick that had got stuck in Jack's fluffy puppy fur. "Have you been in the woods playing with Spencer?" 

Jack barked and then shifted with ease into a boy again. 

"I'll be damned," Morgan said. 

"Mommy, I did it!" Jack screamed before he wrapped his arms around Haley and hugged her legs. Haley reached down and ruffled his hair. 

"I see this. Please tell me you didn't do it alone."

"No. I had Spencer with me when I changed the first time. I really liked it. He let me play on him and run with him and I found skunks and I fell in the pond trying to catch a fish. Spencer bumped me for getting him wet and then we played and played until Spencer carried me back. I'm hungry." 

Spencer couldn't help the laugh that came out after Jack's hunger declaration. Spencer knew well what it felt like shifting and playing and getting so very hungry.

"Well your father is getting ready to start cooking but I bet Aunt Jessica can take you and get a snack." Haley looked at Jessica and she held out her hand. Jack was a little dirty but there was no helping that as Spencer knew once everyone was done eating they were going to be taking to the woods again. 

Spencer did brush off his own clothes a little bit before looking at Haley. 

"Hello, Spencer," Haley said as she took a step toward him.

"Hello M-Haley." Spencer wasn't sure what to call her but he was a little tongue tied at it. Aaron was at the grill and he only grinned. Spencer promise to pay him back for that. 

"He's been talking for days about wanting to show you something. I assume that his first shift was it?" Haley asked.

"I think so, Ma'am. He was quite proud of himself. He doesn't seem to have an issue on it, the whole back and forth. I was stuck for a little while in my wolf form the first time. Though I was more reluctant about it all than him."

"Aaron's told me a little about your issues over the years. A little more when I was worried about how you were acting around Jack. It helped explain a lot. I was raised among the pack, even though I can't shift, but I never once thought that my pack didn't love me. It's not big but it's full of love. Jack loves to go and visit them. Maybe the next run that they do you and Aaron should come with Jack, Jessica, and I. I know you have this pack but Aaron's always been welcome in mine, even after the divorce. I wasn't the nicest for a while but he's been coming some, mainly for Jack."

"And Aaron and I as a couple?" Spencer knew that a lot of packs looked down on same sex couples. 

"My aunt comes with her two female life partners," Haley said with a smile.

"Oh."

"Yes, they are the pack’s crazy aunts as Jack calls them. They are the fun ones and the ones that watch over the kids if the adults want to have a bit more...animalistic fun." Haley's eyes darted to Spencer neck where the wound was still evident where Aaron had bit him. There were scratches on his person as well. "How is your leg?"

Spencer looked at Aaron and frowned. He knew that Aaron talked to Jack each night but he wasn't aware that Aaron kept Jack or even Haley that informed on Spencer. 

"Jack told me. He tells me a lot about you, things that you do with him, what he really likes about you." Haley turned to the side and settled into Spencer a little bit, slipping her arm through his. Spencer stiffened.

"Haley," Aaron said.

"I'm not going to hurt him. I would probably have a screaming Jack if I did. I just want to have a talk with him, away from prying ears," Haley said. She kind of forced Spencer to run and they passed by Aaron. She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek and Spencer just blushed at the look of worry on Aaron's face. 

Spencer knew if he said one word about not wanting this, Aaron would stop it. He would have Morgan or Prentiss go with them but Spencer agreed that maybe a frank discussion would be good for them. Especially if she was going to be in the woods with all of them. 

Haley said nothing until they were near the pond, she went right there with no issue which told Spencer that she had been out there with Aaron at least some. She was in shorts so when she let go of Spencer and sat down to take off her shoes, Spencer didn't really think about it when she dropped her legs into the water, kicking a little. Spencer hadn't really paid that close of attention to see that the water line there was a straight drop down. 

"Aaron likes to run in his pelt so he would drop me off here and I would sit and enjoy the sun and just exist out here. The first time I didn't have a place I could do this so the next time, he had come out during the weekend and dug this down and lined it with a netting that's hooked into the dirt pretty far to stop it from collapsing. He checks it on occasion. It was a stop gap measure until he could build up a little dock. The pond is just big enough to fish on and Jack does want to try and fish. We both got a little crazy there for a few years and Aaron didn't come out as much as he wanted just to try and be with me. I started to resent this side of him and I hated that when I was clear of the jumbles of emotions."

"He's been talking about working on this place some during our little vacation. I'm not the greatest with the physical stuff but I can help him some. Morgan's offered."

"He loves you and I could tell that two years ago."

"What?" Spencer stopped as he had been leaning over to take off his shoes and roll up his pants legs to sit down beside her. He let his feet slip into the water after finishing up. Haley said nothing else so Spencer waited. She seemed like she was gathering her thoughts.

"Aaron loved me but we grew apart and neither of us tried to hold onto it until we were too far apart. I resented him for caring more about his job than he did me but I saw afterward, when I wasn't looking at it through the eyes of a resentful wife that it's the help on the job that Aaron craves. He wanted to be helpful, he needs to be. His family life wasn't the greatest, even on the best days. I had a really good childhood, Spencer. I mean like one of those ones that's picture perfect. I wanted for nothing that I needed and I knew that I would never go without love and care. Aaron had more bad days than I had good. He rose above that. He made sure that I would have a life that I loved, at the sacrifice of his own happiness for a while. Then he started to care about himself and stupid me started to hate him for that. I can see where I went wrong and I'm not laying the blame wholly on me. He could have tried more but I knew that he wouldn't. He doesn't fight for things because if he does, he's going to lose them. He's lost the things he wanted most at the hands of his parents. He loves Sean with all of his heart but that boy needs a lot of help because he resents Aaron for some reason."

"Sean has never let himself see the horribleness that their parents put on Aaron. Everything that Aaron has in his life he has fought for. He wasn't handed a good education, he made sure that he got it because he thought that if he was good, if he was perfect he would get the attention that Sean had but all Sean saw was that Aaron had things that Sean wanted while Sean had everything that Aaron wanted and never could get. In the end his parents made him lose Sean too." Spencer had thought long and hard on all of that over the years. There was supposed to be no inner team profiling but it was hard when you saw bits and pieces of things. Actions that were in congruent with the whole of what the man before them was. 

"I never understood why Aaron didn't push for more with Sean but after the last time that he was in town for a quick visit after Jack was born, I could see how much Sean resented Aaron for having a family. Sean could have one if he really wanted and settled down but he thinks it's something to be handed to him not something he has to work for. Do you know if Aaron has told him about you?"

"I don't bring up Sean," Spencer said. No one on the team did. They all knew that there were issues there and never brought him up unless they had to.

"I can understand that. I never did after that visit. I don't want you to ever feel like I hate you. Aaron was my best friend for a long time and I think we let ourselves both be blinded to the fact that maybe we should have stayed best friends. He's happy with you in a way that he hasn't been for a long time. I knew he was falling in love with you two years ago and I took a little but I became happy for him. Then I thought he was never going to make a move on you. He was happy just being around you. I didn't even understand that his reasons for staying away was because he thought you were human. I thought you were as well and then he told me about you, about what little he felt safe telling about your life."

"It wasn't the greatest but then I think that helps when it comes to him and I." Spencer looked out at the pond. He could see the fish swimming up some distance away from them. 

"That's why I want to talk to you about this before I mention it to Aaron. Aaron will probably want it but he might not ask for fear of upsetting you. Jack's been asking me to move for a while. Not because he doesn't like the house but because he wants a place that Aaron and I can live in along with Jessica. I know what the marks on you mean, the way that they are. Those were not made by human fingernails and you were not injured like that on the case, not that it would look like that now anyway. Jack told me everything that Aaron told him and you would have been healed from those scratches already. You and Aaron are now a package deal and I understand that." Haley reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone. She touched the screen a few times and then showed Spencer it. 

There was a house on there, or mansion might be the correct term as it looked bigger than Rossi's house that he called a mansion. It had two very distinct wings in it. It would be big enough for four adults and Jack. It would make Aaron happy to be able to be around Jack more and Jack wouldn't have to be shuttled back and forth between two places all the time. Spencer was already going to have to move. He could hold onto his place until a bigger, much bigger place was found. He could still stay with Aaron most of the time, them going back to his to check on the other apartment. Spencer could do that and it would better than packing up to move in with Aaron and then moving somewhere else altogether. 

"Why talk to me first at all? Do you want me to influence Aaron in one way or another?" 

"No!" Haley was emphatic on that. She looked upset that Spencer even mentioned that. "No. No. If you hate the idea, I wasn't even going to ask Aaron. If you didn't think that you could live with Jack, me and Jessica full time, I wouldn't ask Aaron. This is new to you, you've not even lived with Aaron full time. It would be different if this had happened before this, if Aaron had lived with us and you knew what you were getting into. Or if you had been living with Aaron alone for a while, it would be different. This is a lot of change on you and I would rather move at a pace you are comfortable with than to have Aaron looking at you like a kicked puppy and you doing something you are not ready for. I know Aaron. I might have forgotten for a while but he's my best friend. I want what is best for Jack, yes and I think that living with his mother and his father would be best for him but it's not just us three in the relationship."

"I'll think about it and let you know sometime today."

"It doesn't have to be today, it doesn't have to be this place. Jack and I take walks and we see this place as it's close to where we walk when we take the car to walk somewhere that we don't go everyday. It's a little on the edge of the city, closer to Quantico and closer to New Haven."

"That's the Shifter friendly school in Dumfries right? Aaron was talking about it and Jack would be starting there for kindergarten after he's done with pack schooling." 

"Yes. Jack's already got a place there because of his estimated IQ with how he talks and stuff. I blame Aaron for that. Aaron's read to him so much. I swear that Aaron read him the dictionary and encyclopedias when he was a baby."

"Shifter children are not stupid. There really aren't any that could be considered dumb in any way shape or form unless there was on outside influence. I guess I'm just used to smarter kids that I didn't think that there was anything different about him."

"He loves reading, he's been drawing too and those are a little more detailed than other almost four year old children. I think that outside of New Haven being a good school that includes Shifters, I think that the way that we can modify Jack's educational track will be wonderful. I want you to be in on that, when we go in the spring to talk to them."

"Me?"

"You are one of his parents Spencer, whether you've realized that or not. He felt safe coming out to you, so to speak. he wanted you to be the first. Aaron and I got over the jealousy of that kind of stuff a long time ago and it wasn't hard to understand why Jack wanted to show you of all people in his little world. You are a parent."

Spencer was a little shocked at that. He hadn't thought of himself that way. He stood up from the water and was a little dazed. He heard Aaron's whistle and the smell of food that was making its way all the way to where they were because of the breeze had Spencer feeling hungry. Lunch felt like such a long time ago. 

The walk back was by smell to Spencer. He followed his nose to the scent of freshly grilled meats. He looked at the team, his family, just grown a little bigger in his eyes since he had fully committed to Aaron. He now had his mate's ex-wife, her sister, and a kid in that family. In his pack. 

"So was it a good talk?" Aaron asked as Spencer tucked himself into Aaron's side. 

Spencer nodded his head. Aaron reached out to turn Spencer's face to look at him. Aaron looked really worried. Spencer tried to form words but those were hard. He had no clue how he was feeling. 

"Haley?" Aaron questioned. He looked at his ex-wife with a frown on his face and anger starting in his eyes. 

"I didn't-" 

"We are all moving in together!" Spencer near yelled. 

Aaron's eyes darted from Haley to Spencer and back and forth a few times.

"What?" Aaron asked. 

Haley started to laugh and she looked happy. She rushed at Spencer and hugged him tight. Spencer hugged her back.

"Really? Daddy and Spencer are moving in with us?" Jack asked. 

"I'm a little lost here," Aaron said. 

"Jack's been wanting you to move back in," Jessica said. 

Spencer listened as she explained everything that Jack had wanted and what Haley wanted to talk to Spencer about. 

"And no one asked me?"

"You would do it in a heartbeat if it was going to be better for Jack," Spencer said as he finally let go of Haley. Jack was there to hug her and Spencer looked at his mate. "We all know that but Haley didn't want me doing it because it would make you happy. She was willing to wait until I was ready without the pressure of you being upset at me saying that I wasn't ready. We can close down my apartment and I check on it every few days and I move in with you with a little bit of my stuff until we find a place that all of us would fit in." 

"I found a castle!" Jack said. He looked up at Haley with expectation on his face. 

Haley sighed and moved to grab her phone to show Aaron the house that was on sale. Spencer could see the castle bit with the two sides of the houses having almost towers in them. Spencer was pretty sure that Jack was going to get rooms on either side of the house with Jessica and Haley taking one side and Spencer and Aaron taking the other. It was big enough that there could be two of everything pretty much. 

Spencer looked at Aaron and saw that he was in shock but seemed happy. Spencer got closer and gave him a hug. 

"Are you sure?" Aaron asked.

"No, but then I can't be sure of everything. It just feels right," Spencer said honestly. Aaron kissed him, hard and deep and made Morgan start to make gagging noises. Spencer laughed as he pulled away from the kiss. Aaron didn't let him go far at all but then Spencer wasn't shocked. Aaron probably wasn't going to let him get too far the rest of the evening, wanting to be close to Spencer just to be close to him. Spencer had no issues with that now or ever.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story! 
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot.


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